A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 




Photo. En ery Walker 
PROFESSOR AND MRS. FAVVCETT 
From the painting by Ford Madox Brown, now in the National Portrait Gallery 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

BEING A LIFE OF 

HENRY FAWCETT 

THE BLIND POSTMASTER-GENERAL 

BY 

WINIFRED HOLT 



' He that is greatest among you 
let him be servant of all.' 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1914 






-^-^^-^ 






THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 

TO THE FIVE ON TWO CONTINENTS 

WHO MADE ITS WRITING POSSIBLE- 

IN ENGLAND, B. T. AND F. DE G. E. 

IN AMERICA, E. H. B., H. H. 

AND R. H. 



FOREWORD 

BY 

The Right Honourable Viscount Bryce 
LATE British Ambassador to America 

There has been no more striking example in our 
time of how self-reliance and strength of purpose 
can triumph over adverse fortune than that pre- 
^ sented by the career of Henry Fawcett. The story 

J of his Hfe as it is to be told in this book will give 

ample illustrations of his fortitude and his per- 
severance. All that I, an old friend of his, need 
speak of is a quality hardly less remarkable than 
was his energy. I mean his cheerfulness. It 
was specially wonderful and admirable in one 
afflicted as he was. Nothing would seem so to cut 
a man off from his fellows as the loss of sight, nor 
would it appear possible to enjoy the charms of 
external nature without seeing them. Fawcett, 
however, delighted in society. He never moped. 
He loved to be among his friends, and found an 
inexhaustible pleasure in talk wherever he was, 
in his College (Trinity Hall, Cambridge), at London 



viii A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

dinner-parties, in the lobbies or smoking-room of 
the House of Commons. If he had moments of 
sadness in soHtude we knew nothing of them, for 
in company he was always bright. His greetings 
were joyous ; his good spirits proverbial at 
Cambridge, and indeed in all the circles that knew 
him, making his friends feel, in any moments of 
depression that might come upon them, half 
ashamed to be less cheery than one with whom 
fate had dealt so hardly. Without this natural 
buoyancy of temper, even such a resolute will 
his might have failed to achieve so much as 
achieved. He seemed determined to hold on 
every possible source of enjoyment he had ever 
known before sight was lost. That determination 
used to strike me most in his fondness for open-air 
nature and physical exercise. He loved not only 
walking but riding. I remember how once when I 
was staying with him in the same country house 
in Surrey, our host arranged a long excursion on 
horseback through the lanes and woods of the 
pretty country that lies on both sides of the North 
Downs, to the south-west of London. Fawcett 
insisted on being one of the party, and when he 
approached a place where the bridle-path ran 
through a wood of beeches, whose spreading boughs 
came down almost to the height of the horses* 
heads, he said to me, * Tell me to duck my head 




FOREWORD ix 

whenever we come to a spot where the branches 
are low.' I felt uneasy, for if he had struck against 
one of the thick boughs, he might have been un- 
horsed and would certainly have been hurt. How- 
ever, I went in front and warned him as he had 
desired. He rode on fearlessly, stooping low over 
the horse's neck whenever I called out to him to 
do so, and he evidently enjoyed the fresh scent of 
the woods and the rustling of the leaves just as 
much as did all the rest of us. 

His love of nature, joined to his sympathy with 
the masses of the people, made him eager to secure 
the preservation of public rights in commons and 
village greens and footpaths. He was one of the 
founders of that Commons Preservation Society 
which has done so much to save open spaces in 
England from the grasp of the spoiler ; frequently 
attended its meetings, and was always ready to 
vote and speak in the House of Commons when 
any question involving popular rights in the land 
arose there. 

At a time when extremely few non-official 
persons in Parliament interested themselves in 
the government and administration of India, 
Fawcett, though he had never visited the East, 
and had no family connection with it, felt, and set 
himself to impress upon others, the grave respon- 
sibility of Britain for the welfare of the peoples of 



X A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

India. He studied with characteristic thorough- 
ness and assiduity the facts and conditions of 
Indian life, the financial problems those conditions 
involve, the needs and feelings of the subject 
population. His speeches were of the greatest 
value in calling public attention to these subjects, 
and his name is gratefully remembered in India. 

His mental powers were remarkable rather for 
strength than for subtlety. It was an eminently 
English intellect, forcible in its broad commonsense 
way of looking at things, and in its disposition to 
pass by side issues and refinements in order to go 
straight to the main conclusions he desired to 
enforce. This was what chiefly gave weight to 
his speeches in Parliament and on the platform. 
Debarred as he was from the use of writing, he 
formed the habit of thinking out fully beforehand 
both what he meant to say and the words in which 
he meant to say it, and thus he became a master of 
lucid statement and cogent argument, making each 
of his points sharp and clear, and driving them 
home in a way which every listener could com- 
prehend. The same merits of directness and 
coherency are conspicuous in his writings on 
political economy, his favourite study. There 
were no dark corners in his mind any more than in 
his political creed, or indeed in his course of action 
as a statesman. In practical politics, it was said 



FOREWORD xi 

of him, to use a familiar phrase, that you always 
knew where to find him. That was one of the 
qualities which secured for him not only the con- 
fidence of his political friends but the respect of 
his political opponents. When he died prema- 
turely he had reached a position in the House of 
Commons which would have secured his early 
admission to the Cabinet, and the only doubt 
I ever heard raised was whether his bHndness, 
which would have made it necessary that docu- 
ments, however confidential, should be read aloud 
to him, would have constituted a fatal obstacle. 

The force of his character and the vigour of his 
intellect must have ensured him a distinguished 
career even had he been stricken by no calamity. 
That he should have been stricken by one which 
would have overwhelmed almost any other man, 
and should have triumphed over it by his cheerful 
and persistent courage, marks him out as an extra- 
ordinary man, worthy to be long remembered. 

BRYCE. 



INTRODUCTION 

' I WISH we had Fawcett here to-day. At this 
crisis England needs him sorely.' These words, 
said with much feehng by the late Lord Avebury, 
were spoken to the writer of this book only two 
years ago. 

Fawcett is not needed only in England. His is 
the type of man needed sorely to-day and every 
day in every empire and democracy under the 
sun. His example of valour against odds is just 
as necessary for America as for the Mother Country, 
for the men who are now doing the world's work 
as for the lads who will be at work to-morrow. 

Sir Leshe Stephen said that while writing the 
biography of Fawcett, there was not a single fact 
which he had to conceal, nothing to explain away, 
nothing to apologise for, and he judged the best 
way to do his subject honour was to tell the plain 
story as fully and as frankly as he could. 

Sir Leslie wrote with the reticent dignity of one 
recently grieving for the loss of his friend ; the 
present writer will have executed her task if she 
has succeeded in throwing a more personal light 
on the heroic figure of Fawcett. 



xiv A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

This little book has no pretensions. It en- 
deavours merely to preserve carefully and rever- 
ently glimpses and flashes — which might have 
otherwise been lost — of a great life, a Hfe of deep 
significance not only to those who see, but especially 
to those who, like Fawcett, must depend for their 
vision on that inner eye which no calamity can 
darken. 

When he lost his sight, Fawcett had his fixed 
manner of life, his tastes and ambitions, and he was 
painfully forced to readjust himself to altered 
aspects. The tracing of the beneficent effect of 
this necessity on a man of his strong mind, body 
and will, is a psychological study of deep interest. 

His attitude towards questions that are still 
vital, such as the treatment of dependent peoples, 
the widening of the suffrage and the perfecting of 
its machinery, make his personality still unique, 
modern and absorbing. 

A nearer view of the man, seen through the re- 
collections and anecdotes of his friends, shows his 
intense love of fun, his high ideals and bravery, his 
tremendous industry and accomplishment. 

The author is grateful for permission to use the 
facsimiles of the letters of Queen Victoria and the 
Prince of Wales (King Edward). 

She is also deeply obliged for the help given 
by reminiscences and anecdotes from the Right 



INTRODUCTION xv 

Honourable the late Lord Avebury ; Dr. Beck, 
Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge ; Dr. Henry 
Bond ; the Right Honourable Viscount Bryce, late 
British Ambassador to America ; Sir Francis 
Campbell; the late Robert Campbell, Esq.; the 
Honourable Joseph H. Choate, late American 
Ambassador to Great Britain ; Lord and Lady 
Courtney ; Sir Alfred Dale ; the late Sir Robert 
Hunter ; the late Sir WiUiam Lee-Warner, G.C.S.I. ; 
the Right Honourable Viscount Morley ; Lady 
Ritchie, Miss McCleod Smith ; the Right Honour- 
able the late James Stuart, Esq., and Mr. Sedley 
Taylor. 

She is particularly indebted to Miss Fawcett, the 
sister of Mr. Fawcett, and to Mrs Fawcett, his 
widow, for their assistance. Their interest in the 
book was a great stimulus towards its writing, 
Mr. F. J. Dryhurst, C.B., who from 1 871 to 1884 was 
secretary to Mr. Fawcett, has been a great aid in 
preparing the book. The greatest assistance has 
been given by Miss de Grasse Evans and Miss 
Beatrice Taylor, without whose sympathy and help 
in various stages of the work its completion might 
have been impossible. 

It has been inevitable that Sir Leslie's biography 
should be largely quarried. His arrangement of 
facts has been followed as the simplest and most 
logical framework for the story, and descriptions 



xvi A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

of scenes which he and his friends witnessed, and 
stories of Fawcett not elsewhere given, have been 
used. The admiration and gratitude of the novice 
for help from the master biographer is here humbly- 
recorded . 

This book should enhance the interest of the 
older biography, which perhaps may be reintro- 
duced after many years oblivion — as it has been 
out of print — by its younger and less formal 
companion. 

The material to be had has been used and 
adapted as it might best serve, and the narrative 
has not been interrupted to give its source ; it is 
believed that this policy will be in accordance with 
the wishes of those of Mr. Fawcett's appreciators 
who have so generously helped. 

The more we know about this brave, patient and 
humorous man, the more inspiration we get ; 
and to help us to achieve and to rejoice — ^never was 
inspiration more sorely needed than to-day ! It 
is in the hope of supplying a little of this great 
need that this brief story of a steadfast life is 
written. 

WINIFRED HOLT. 



CONTENTS 



PAGB 

Foreword by the Right Hon. Viscount Brvce . vii 



Introduction 



YOUTH 

Chapter I. Waterloo, the Mayor and the Baby 

The Fisherman — The Battle of Waterloo — The Mayor of 
Salisbury, the Mayor's Son — The Market-place — The 
Circus — Boarding-School and Fun — A Diary . . 3 

Chapter II. The Boy Lecturer 

A Lecture on the Uses of Steam — Parliamentary Ambitions 
— King's College — Politics in the Fifties — Cribbage 
and Cricket 11 

CAMBRIDGE 

Chapter III. The Tall Student 

Peterhouse — Quoits and Billiards — Trinity Hall — A Fellow- 
ship — Lincoln's Inn 25 

Chapter IV. A Set Back 
A Trip to France — Wiltshire French — A Discouragement 35 

b 



xviii A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

WINNING BACK 
Chapter V. Darkness 

PAGE 

A Shooting Accident — Blindness— Readjustment . . 43 

Chapter VI. Happiness 

The clear-sighted Man — A Scot's Accent — Mountain 

Climbing— Skating— Riding, etc 54 

Chapter VII. Distraction 

Fishing — In the House of Commons — Need for Distraction 
— What Helen Keller thinks — Sir Francis Campbell- 
Leap Frog — Despair and Cheer — Paupers and Political 
Economy 63 

CAMBRIDGE AGAIN 

Chapter VIII. The Problem of the Poor 

A Prime Object — Lincoln — Leslie Stephen — Daily Life at 

Cambridge — Deepening interest in Social Questions . 75 

Chapter IX. The Good Samaritan 

'Ask Fawcett' — The Ancient Mariners and the Diplomat 
— Christmas Exceedings — Fawcett as Host — A Bore 
Foiled — The British Association 84 

Chapter X. The Young Economist 

Championing Darwin — Darwin at Down— SaUsbury gossip 
— Meeting Mill — Fawcett for Lincoln and the Union 
—John Bright's Dog— Chair of Political Economy . 94 



CONTENTS xix 

THE PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 

Chapter XI. A Programme of Helpfulness 

PAGE 

Triumphing over Blindness — The Professor's Audience — 
Free Trade and Protection — The Luxury of Light — The 
Malady of Poverty 1 1 1 

Chapter XII. The Schools of the Poor 

Need of non-secular Education — Charity and Pauperism 
— Friendship with Working-Men — The Voice that 
Linked 119 

Chapter XIII. The New M.P. and the Club ' 

Thackeray and the Reform Club — The Popular M.P. — The 

Assassination of Lincoln — Marriage . . . .127 

Chapter XIV. The Woman and the Vote 

The Home in London — Sympathy with Woman Suffrage — 

The Blind Gardener — Clubs — Hatred of Flunkeyism . 135 

THE NEW M.P. 

Chapter XV. Blind Superstitions 

Speech before the British Association — Mill again — Bright 
and Lord Brougham — The Mythical Committee Room 
— Defeat at Southwark 143 

Chapter XVI. Pure Politics 

Defeat at Cambridge and Brighton — Routing a Chimasra — 
Elected the Member for Brighton — The House of 
Commons . 151 



XX A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

Chapter XVII. A Prophetic Question in Parliament 

PAGE 

The Blind and Silent M.P.— His First Speech— Protecting 
Cattle, neglecting Children — Industry earns Penury — 
Mill 'out' 162 

Chapter XVIII. Gladstone Prime Minister 

Opposition to Gladstone — 'The Most Thorough Radical 
Member in the House' — Growing Dissatisfaction with 
the Government — The Irish Universities Bill — Helping 
to Defeat his own Party 173 

SAVING THE PEOPLE'S PLAYGROUNDS 

Chapter XIX. The Stolen Commons 

The Disappearance of the English Playgrounds and 
Commons — Fawcett's First Protest — The Annual En- 
closure Bill stopped by his Energetic Action . . 185 

Chapter XX. The Fight for the Forest 

The Commons Preservation Society — The Saving of 
Epping Forest — The Queen's Rights — The Lords of 
the Manors' Rights. — The People's Rights . . .194 

Chapter XXI. For the People's Woods and Streams 

Saving the Forests — 'The Monstrous Notion' — Walking 
with Lord Morley — The Boat Race — Safeguarding the 
Rivers 203 

THE MEMBER FOR INDIA 

Chapter XXII. What India Paid 

India Pays for English Hospitality — Royal English Gener- 
osity to India paid for by India — How to Deal with an 



CONTENTS xxi 

PAGE 

Angry Opponent — Indian Finance and the poor Ryot 
— Gratitude from India — How Fawcett Prepared his 
Speeches 217 

Chapter XXIII. The 'One Man who cared for India' 

Defeated at Brighton — Spectacles and the Man — Elected 

for Hackney 227 

Chapter XXIV. Famine, Turks and Indians 

Punch and Fawcett — The Indian Famine — ParHamentary 
Interest Aroused in India — Bulgarian Atrocities — 
Afghanistan War — Gladstone's Faith in Fawcett — A 
;^9,ooo,ooo Mistake 234 

A NEW KIND OF POSTMASTER-GENERAL 

Chapter XXV. Liberals in Power 

General Expectation that Fawcett would join the Cabinet — 
Importance of a Fish — Postmaster-General — Queen 
Victoria Interested — Post Office Problems — Scientific 
Business Management Anticipated — Women's Work — 
A Likeness to Lincoln 249 

Chapter XXVI. Fresh Air, Blue Ribbons and Postmen 

A Day with the Postmaster-General — How he Worked — 

Reform — The Parcel Post 262 

Chapter XXVII. The Pennies of the Poor 

Cheap Postal Orders — Savings Bank — Life Insurance — 
Two Post Office Pamphlets to Help the People — 
Cheap Telegrams — Telephones — 'The Man for the 
Post' — 'Words are Silver, Silence is Gold' . . . 275 



xxii A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

A TRIUMPHANT END 

Chapter XXVIII. At Home and at Court 

PAGE 

Appreciating Opponents — Hackney Address — Proportional 
Representation — Justice for Women — A State Concert 
— Humble Friendships — Pigs — Salisbury again . . 287 

Chapter XXIX. A Grave Illness 
Illness — Convalescence — Musical Discrimination . . 300 

Chapter XXX. Among the Blind 
A Leader of the Blind — Honours — His Last Speech . . 306 

Chapter XXXI. Light 

The Passing — The People Grieve — Sorrow in Parliament 
— The Nation's Loss — Letters from Queen Victoria, the 
Prince of Wales (the late King Edward) and Gladstone 
— The Railroad Men's Tribute — The Significance of 
his Life— India's Loss — Fawcett's Message . . .311 

Henry Fawcett, from 'Punch' 327 

Appendix 329 

Index 335 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Professor and Mrs. Fawcett . 

Henry Fawcett's Mother 

Henry Fawcett before he was Blind 

Miss Maria Fawcett 

Henry Fawcett at Cambridge, 1863 

Henry Fawcett and Mrs. Fawcett 

Henry Fawcett .... 

Henry Fawcett and his Father 

Henry Fawcett 



Fawcett's Signature and Seal as Post 
master-General of England . 

The Man for the Post . 

The New Stamp Duty 

Here stands a Post 

Facsimile of a Letter from Queen 
Victoria to Mrs. Fawcett 

Facsimile of a Letter from the Prince 
of Wales (King Edward VH.) to 
Mrs. Fawcett 

Memorial in Westminster Abbey . 



Frontispiece 

Facing page 6 

„ 26 

„ 5° 
„ 102 

» 130 

„ 180 

„ 204 

„ 224 



252 -^ 

272 -^ 

276 '^ 

282 '" 

316 - 

318 
322 



YOUTH 



' Where the pools are bright and deep, 
Where the gray trout Ues asleep, 
Up the river and over the lea, 
That 's the way for Billy and me.' 

James Hogg. 



CHAPTER I 

WATERLOO, THE MAYOR, AND THE BABY 

The Fisherman — The Battle of Waterloo — The Mayor 
of Salisbury — The Mayor's Son — The Market-place — 
The Circus — Boarding-School and Fun — A Diary. 

One midsummer day in 1815 a young draper's 
assistant was gently fishing in the Salisbury Avon. 
William Fawcett was but lately come to Salisbury, 
yet he already knew his river. While trying a deep 
pool in the shadow of a bridge near the town he 
was startled by shouts from the roadway above. 
' News from the army ! A great victory ! Boney 
in flight ! ' 

The fisherman forgot his fish, and hurried away 
to join the rejoicing crowd gathering in the market- 
place. There having been bustled to the roof of 
a stage-coach, and had the gazette containing the 
news thrust into his hands, he read out in his remark- 
ably clear and resonant voice the account of the 
great battle of Waterloo. 

Seventeen years later, when the shopkeeper had Rejoicings. 
become the Mayor of Salisbury, he again led the 
town in rejoicings. The great Reform Bill had 
become law. Salisbury townsfolk were hence- 
forth to have a voice in the councils of the nation, 
and the barren hill on which stood the pocket 



4 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

borough of old Sarum was no longer to mock them 
with its political power. 

The town joyously prepared to celebrate the 
event. The houses were decorated. Elaborate 
illuminations were set up. Victory, assisted by 
Greek gods and goddesses, presided over a trans- 
parency in which Britannia throttled the hydra 
of corruption, while Wellington and Peel scowled 
in the background. Meat and beer were given to 
the poor ; in the market-place, at great fires lighted 
in the open air, whole sheep were roasted. The 
smoke swirled blindly about the bustling crowd, 
and then surged up past the latticed windows of 
the Mayor's house, to seek in ever thinning rifts 
the spire of the wonderful cathedral that for 
centuries has watched over the destinies of the 
town. The next day was held in the market-place 
a great banquet, at which the Mayor presided ; 
and after dinner all adjourned to the Green Croft 
Cricket Ground, where his Worship led off the 
dance with a prominent and elderly lady of the 
town — the Mayor resplendent in plaited shirt frill 
and high stock, the buckles on his shoes twink- 
ling as he cut ' pigeon wings,' the lady sedate in 
her wide brocade gown, her poke bonnet, and lace 
veil. 

Fawcett's heart was as light as his heels on that 
occasion. All his life he had been a reformer, a 
staunch Liberal, ardent for the extension of the 
franchise. It says much for his personal charm 
and worth that, in a close Tory borough such as 



WATERLOO, THE MAYOR, AND BABY 5 

Salisbury then was, he should have been chosen 
Mayor by his political opponents. 

So dear to his heart was the spirit of freedom The Mayor 
that the Mayor had forsooth to fall in love with 
the daughter of the solicitor who acted as agent 
for the Liberal party. Miss Mary Cooper was a 
good and clever woman, deeply interested in 
politics, and as ardent a reformer as the man she 
married. 

The couple were sociable and humorous. They 
kept a good table, laid in an excellent stock of 
wine, and diffused such a pleasant atmosphere of 
hospitality that they became immensely popular, 
and many distinguished people sought their com- 
pany. But William Fawcett was not only a good 
townsman, he was a good countryman as well, a 
great jumper, a keen sportsman, a good shot, and 
a renowned fisherman. 

In 1833, when the Princess Victoria was fourteen 
years old, when the negro slaves were being freed 
throughout the British Colonies, when Stephenson 
had completed his locomotive and the first rail- 
roads had been started, when all things seemed 
to be pushing and striving for independence and 
progress, in the Mayor's old low red-brick house The Brick- 
overlooking the market-place, in a wonderful Eliza- ^°^^^ ^^^^' 
bethan room, on 26th August, Henry Fawcett was 
born. 

The baby seems to have been singularly like 
most other babies. He shared the uneventful 
placidity of his nursery with an older brother. 



6 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

William, and a sister, Sarah Maria. Six years 
later there came another brother, Thomas Cooper. 
When Harry was four years old Queen Victoria, 
whom he was to serve in so distinguished a capacity, 
came to the throne. But it was still too early to 
find in Harry indications of the future statesman. 
He was delicate, and much spoiled at home, had 
a strong will of his own, and was on the whole 
rather selfish. He was not an imaginative child, 
though he loved at times, holding his sister Maria 
tightly by the hand, to venture into the great 
cathedral and see the coloured light as it filtered 
through the high windows, or to thrill in response 
to the thundering of the great organ. But more 
often we find him, still very tiny, standing squarely 
The Market, on his feet, inquiring with real interest the price 
of bacon, how much sheep and wool brought ; or 
walking with his father and wearying him with 
ceaseless economic questions as to ' Why are things 
cheaper to-day than last month ? ' ' Why does 
butter cost more than milk ? ' until that patient 
man was heard to exclaim not too patiently, ' Harry 
asks me so many questions that he quite worries 
me.' 

He went to a Dame's school, where his first 
teacher said that she had never had so trouble- 
some a pupil, that his head was like a colander ; 
but Harry puts the case more pathetically when 
he tells his mother that 'Mrs. Harris says if we 
go on, we shall kill her, and we do go on,' regret- 
fully adding, ' and yet she does not die.' A 




HENRY FAWCETT'S MOTHER 



WATERLOO, THE MAYOR, AND BABY 7 

schoolmate of these days says that Harry lisped 
very much, and that the boys used to tease him 
about it. He was also so slow about his lessons 
that they called him thickhead. But when school 
was out Harry entered the realms he loved. From 
his home on the market-place he had only to go 
outside the door to be at once in touch with the 
active world whose economic problems appealed 
to him so keenly. He made friends among the 
country folk, and talked of their crops and the 
money they would bring, and noted in his childish 
mind the rise and fall in the price of wheat. 

Then to the same open space came all sorts of The Circus, 
travelling shows. Sometimes the circus spread 
its mysterious tents, and when the children were 
dragged away from the wild beasts and the seduc- 
tive freaks and put to bed, the little Fawcetts 
would stealthily creep to the bedroom window 
overlooking the market and see the lights shining 
on all the wonderful but forbidden marvels, and 
hear the hurdy-gurdy and the band mix their 
triumphal blare with the solemn striking of the 
clock in the near-by cathedral. 

In 1 84 1 Harry's father took a delightful farm- Boarding- 
house at Longford, about three miles south of 
Salisbury, with delectable streams full of fish. 
Harry loved to fish every day, and hated lessons, 
but, alas ! grim fate backed the lessons, and sent 
him ruthlessly to school. He went as a boarder 
to Mr. Sopp at Alderbury, a few miles away. 

There are many tales showing that Harry loved 



8 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

the fleshpots and that he had been much indulged 
at home. He writes, ' I have begun Ovid — I 
hate it.' ' This is a beastly school — milk and 
water, no milk — bread and butter, no butter. 
Please give a quarter's notice.' 

And still more heartrending was the prayer to 
his mother, ' Please when the family has quite 
finished with the ham bone, send it to me.' Imag- 
ination can supply the effect of this on the family 
circle, and guess what a well-covered ham bone 
was shipped to the starving Harry. Starving or 
no, he grew immensely stronger and larger, and 
though he never admitted that he got enough to 
eat at any school, he became ultimately reconciled 
to his exile. 

He used to come home often for half-holidays, 
and to go to Longford and revel in all country 
delights. Then began the close friendships with 
the cottagers about him which meant so much 
to him and influenced all his life. 

In the summer that completed his tenth year 
there came to Salisbury two men who also loved 
the common people and sought to make their 
lives easier. It was the year of the great Free 
Trade campaign in the agricultural districts, and 
the men were Cobden and Bright. They visited 
Harry's father, and perhaps Harry himself met 
them then for the first time. Lord Morley has 
said in his life of Cobden that ' the picture of these 
two men, leaving their homes and their business, 
and going over the length and breadth of the land 



WATERLOO, THE MAYOR, AND BABY 9 

to convert the nation, had about it something 
apostohc' In a home where they and their teach- 
ings were so reverenced, to even hear of their 
journeyings would make a strong impression on 
a boy of Harry's interests, and perhaps helped to 
give a definite aim to his ambitions. 

At Mr. Sopp's school he began a diary, of which 
the penmanship is admirable. On some days the 
only record is the startling fact, ' It was a very 
fine day.' June 21st, 1847, however, is a very 
eventful day, for he lists the capture of the first 
fish that he took with a fly, which weighed ' about 
three-quarters of a pound.' 

Again, he is transported with joy by the gift of Hedgehogs 
a hedgehog and four young ones, and he has a 
glorious time in going on board H.M.S. Howe, of 
one hundred and twenty guns. On one occasion 
he goes to the theatre, on another he is in court 
hearing a trial. He begins Greek, and this anguish 
is modified by the arrival of a cake for one of his 
schoolfellows, which Harry doubtless shares. 

A change of scene is recorded in the diary when 
on 3rd August Henry becomes the first pupil at 
Queenwood College. In its previous career this 
temple of learning had been Harmony Hall, built 
by Robert Owen for his last socialist experiment. 
In 18 1 7 it was opened as a school by Mr. Edmonson, 
a Quaker. Special emphasis was given to scientific 
training and English literature. The school seems 
to have been very congenial to Harry, and his 
intellect now began to develop rapidly. 



10 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

The Editor. To continue from the diary, we learn that ' we 

elected the various school officers. J. Mansergh 
and I were elected without opposition editors of 
the Queenwood Chronicle.' He had been at Queen - 
wood but a fortnight, and was fourteen years old 
when this great honour came to him. Mr. Fawcett 
was delighted at this good news, and offered be- 
cause of it and because Harry had been ' studying 
most determinedly ' to take the boy to Stonehenge. 
His aversion to books had distressed his family, 
and this new interest in his studies gave his father 
great pleasure. On reading a composition which 
Harry had sent home, Mr. Fawcett exclaimed to 
his wife, ' I really think, mother, after all that 
there is something in that boy ! ' His literary 
performances at this time indicate an increasing 
imagination, but in the main he never deviated 
from the practical paths of thought shown when 
as a tiny child he studiously investigated the 
Salisbury market. His schoolmates report him 
as ' tall for his age, loose-limbed, and rather un- 
gainly.' He had become much of a bookworm, 
and though later good at games, at this time he 
preferred to wander off by himself and read. He 
was strongest in mathematics ; languages did 
not much appeal to him ; but he liked to learn 
long passages of poetry by heart. There was a 
disused chalk-pit near Queenwood where he would 
take refuge and declaim his lines. The extravagance 
of his gesticulations might well cause unexpecting 
passers-by to consider him the village loony. 



CHAPTER II 

THE BOY LECTURER 

A Lecture on the uses of Steam — Parliamentary Ambi- 
tions — King's College — Politics in the Fifties^Cribbage 
and Cricket. 

Fawcett was interested in the scientific lectures, 
and he had a very good time. Professor Tyndall 
took them out surveying. Harry comments on 
a lecture at which he heard that there ' is fire 
in everything, even ice ' ; he also records some 
chemical experiments in the laboratory. 

In September the diary states, ' I began writing 
my lecture on phonography, on the uses of steam 
without copying any of it.' 

There is an error here, as these were two lectures, 
not one. That on steam, in a blue marbled- 
covered copy-book, lies before the writer. The 
title, inscribed in tall, shaded handwriting, con- 
tained within scrupulously ruled lines, is : 

A Lecture delivered by H. Fawcett 

On Uses of Steam 

At Queenwood College 

September 27, 1847. 



12 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

The ink, which was black sixty-six years ago, is 
now much faded ; but the essay of the fourteen- 
year-old schoolboy is still fresh and interesting, 
and so prophetic of the man that it is like a simple 
map indicating the chief features of the country 
we are about to see. 

Henry writes in his careful penmanship, for 
which he must have been marked at least 9+ in a 
scale of 10, ' Things which appear simple to an 
unobserving Person are to an observing Person 
the most complicated and beautifully formed 
. . . such a simple Thing as a blade of Grass, 
has ever any Man been yet so wise as to tell what 
it is ? ' 
The Essayist. Here is another curious sentence written by the 
bright-eyed youngster with the monumental dig- 
nity of the lecturer : 

* What can be so beautifully contrived and 
framed as the human Body, where there are in- 
numerable Parts, acting all in Unity ? ... if one 
of the Parts go wrong, the whole Body is put out 
of Tune ... is there any one Part of our Body 
which we could dispense with ? . . . I think the 
Answer "No" must be evident to every one.' 

It is curious that Fawcett should have been 
called upon later by the loss of his eyesight to 
contradict this childish statement, and to prove 
not only that we can get along without some of our 
most precious faculties, but that the law of com- 
pensation so works that we may be able to accom- 
plish more by reason of the loss. 



THE BOY LECTURER 13 

The essay proceeds to deal with railways, and 
contains all kinds of figures relating to tonnage, 
trains, traffics, the cost of railroad construction, 
etc., all with careful, correct figures ; a complicated 
study for a railroad expert. This schoolboy is 
already coping with the figures and statistics of 
which he had later such a marvellous control. 
He dwells on the importance of the railroad to the 
Wiltshire farmer, v/ho can sell his cheese at seven- 
pence a pound in London, when it is only worth 
sixpence where it is made. In this and similar 
statements we find the political economist fore- 
shadowed : he speaks of the nobility who selfishly 
object to having railways, which he feels are the 
greatest help to the common people ; and he adds, 
' A Man should sacrifice a little of his own Pleasure 
when he knows that by sacrificing that Pleasure 
he will benefit the People at large.' We must note 
that pleasure is always spelt with a beautiful and 
exceptionally large P. 

Later there are some intelligent remarks on the 
power of a railway to create traffic, so that ' some 
Railways have been made between two Places 
where there was not sufficient Traffic for a Coach, 
and yet when they are made, a Trade springs up, 
and they pay very well indeed.' 

He further approves of the railway as a means Transporta- 
of cheap transportation, and remarks, 'Many a andT<Sn^ 
Person can avail himself of a Day's Pleasure . . . ' 
or, * Enjoy the beautiful Air of some Country 
Village.' Here we have not only the keystone of 



14 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

Henry Fawcett's character, but indications of the 
political activities in which he was to be so pre- 
eminent. His public career was one long, unbroken 
effort to do away with the monopolies and pre- 
rogatives of any class, and so to increase the in- 
dependence and rights of the poor. 

The essay continues by quoting from an article 
in the Quarterly Review written in 1825, which 
considers it impossible that an engine could travel 
eighteen miles an hour. With evident joy he 
quotes, * The gross Exaggerations of the Powers of 
the Locomotive Steam Engine, or to speak English, 
the Steam Carriage, may delude for a time, but 
must end in Mortification to those concerned. 
We should as soon expect the People of Woolwich 
to suffer themselves to be fired off in Congreve's 
Ricochet Rockets, as to trust themselves to the 
Mercies of such a Machine going at such a rate.' 
Harry himself then tells of the M.P. who insisted 
that the best possible locomotive could not compete 
with a canal boat. The scribe seems fully to 
appreciate the humour of this, and so foreshadows 
the love of fun and the vibrant laugh of the man 
to be. 

Steam-engines lead to steamships. Our author 
now invites us to cross ' the wide heaving Ocean,' 
saying, * When you are on a Voyage in a Steam 
Vessel you feel none of that Inconvenience of 
having to remain at Anchor for two or three Weeks 
waiting for a favourable Wind . . . you can pro- 
ceed, for you are quite independent of the Winds, 



THE BOY LECTURER 15 

and the Speed of a Steam Vessel is very consider- 
ably greater than that of any other Vessel.' A 
steam vessel went from Liverpool to Boston in 
eleven days and nine hours, and yet when steam 
navigation was struggling into existence ' it struck 
the minds of our brave Captains as a poor mean 
mechanical Thing unworthy of the least Considera- 
tion.' . . . ' I think you may almost remark ' (note 
the conservative discretion) * that the greatest and 
most useful inventions when they are struggling 
into Existence receive the greatest Opposition, be- 
cause they make great changes, and most people, 
especially the ignorant, are generally very adverse 
to any changes.' 

Now he boasts magnificently about the British Patriotism— 

1 1 , • r T-» Bonaparte 

navy and merchant manne, approves of Bona- and Babylon. 
parte 's wisdom in coveting the British sailors, and 
yet prudently warns all against pride, citing the 
lamentable consequence of lack of humility to 
Babylon and Nineveh. We are asked to consider 
the relative values of coal, diamonds, gold, and 
silver, and are informed that ' every Difficulty 
can be overcome by steady Perseverance — some 
Persons will never scarcely be overcome by Diffi- 
culties — they say they will do it, and they will 
never rest till they have performed what they want 
to, and it is to Men like these that we are indebted. 
. . . No Improvements or Inventions will run into 
a Person's Mind like Water will run into a Bottle, 
but they come from Years of Study and Persever- 
ance.' 



i6 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

We are asked, ' Do you suppose that Sir Isaac 
Newton established the Laws of Gravitation with- 
out some trouble, do you suppose that such a Piece 
of Poetry as Milton's ** Paradise Lost " was written 
without a Moment's Thought — or do you suppose 
that Watt improved the Steam Engine without 
some hard Labour ? ' Our scribe then finishes his 
masterpiece with a stupendous finale, by the help 
of a bit of poetry culled from an American news- 
paper and entitled the ' Song of Steam,' a verse 
of which will be sufficient : 

' I 've no Muscle to weary, no Breast to decay, 

No Bones to be laid on the " Shelf," 
And soon I intend you may go and play, 
While I manage the World by myself.' 

This magnum opus, being now successfully brought 
to completion, is signed in full, no longer, as on the 
title-page, with only the initial of his first name, 
but by Henry Fawcett, writ exceedingly large and 
clear. Queen wood College, October 12th, 1847. 
Every page in the marbled copy-book has been 
filled with various spellings, and only a very few 
erasures, between 27th September and 12th October. 

We have quoted this delicious essay as fully as 
space would allow, not only on account of its 
unique charm, but because every page is coloured 
by a preoccupation with those subjects and a love 
for those traits of human nature which were later 
so characteristic of Henry Fawcett, the teacher and 
statesman. In fact, we may accept this essay on 



THE BOY LECTURER 17 

steam as his official debut. The lecture had an 
encore at SaHsbury in the family circle, when, as 
Harry writes, all were * much pleased with it, and 
Papa promised to give me a sovereign for it.' 

His lecture on phonography is much in the Phonography 

• •.j-,1 1 • i'/-i 11' • • and simplified 

spirit or to-day, when simplined spelling is causing spelling. 
such ardent controversies. Harry comments that 
' out of fifty thousand words in the language, only 
fifty are written as they are pronounced.' We 
must note that in these writings his own inventions 
in spelling tend to change these statistics. 

The range of his composition at this period is 
great. An article on ' Angling and Sir Isaac 
Walton ' is in happy contrast to the account of a 
first visit to London. Another fragment contains 
the acute observation that ' Statesmen depend 
upon their brains.' In another essay called 
* Reflection ' an imaginary trip is taken past Spain, 
during which the author ponders on people who 
are ' made poor by gold.' Progressing to Egypt, 
we are told that Mahomet was ' in many respects 
a worthy man.' Arriving in India, our guide 
tells us of a company of men who, 'occupying a 
house of no very considerable size in London, have 
entirely from their enterprise and powers of mind, 
got possession of many thousand acres of land.' 
Does this refer to the East India Company, and 
had Harry seen the stately East India House in 
Leadenhall Street on that first visit to London ? 

The breathless exuberant feat of imagination 
and philosophy closes with quotations from Portia's 

B 



i8 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

lines to Mercy and Cicero's oration on Verres, 
both of which, the author truthfully says, * show 
powers of reflection.' 

Harry was writing and studying with a definite 
end in view. Already the youth had determined 
on a political career, and when the schoolboys 
discussed their plans for the future he invariably 
declared that he meant to be a Member of Par- 
liament. The statement was received with roars of 
laughter, but Harry remained imperturbably sure. 
He was at Queenwood for a year and a half, 
and then went to London, where he first attended 
King's College School, and then King's College. 
A schoolmate described him as ' a very tall boy 
Still at the with pale whitey brown hair, who always stood 
Class. at the bottom of the lower sixth class.' 

He attended the school in his fifteenth and 
sixteenth years, and then went to lectures in the 
college until the summer of 1852, when he was 
nineteen years old. 

Standing in the school was, in those days, 
entirely determined by knowledge of the classics, 
for which Fawcett showed a grand indifference ; 
but he gained the arithmetic prize in 1849, also the 
class-work prize, the first prize in German, and the 
second in French in the same term. His knowledge 
of these languages was always so vague that we fear 
his teacher was over-partial in the award, or that 
the other boys were strangely deficient. In 1850 
he carried off another honour for mathematics, 
and a first prize after that in the Michaelmas 



THE BOY LECTURER 19 

term. The masters noted Fawcett's unusual 
mathematical power, and were also impressed by 
his ability to write English prose. 

At Easter in 1851 he left school and worked King's 
only at the college for mathematics and classics. cHckeu^" 
We hear that he made no particular mark ; but he 
occasionally played billiards and cricket, and he 
was already an interested spectator in the gallery 
of the House of Commons. 

During his stay in London he lived with some 
family connections, a Mr. and Mrs. Fearon. Mr. 
Fearon was a Chief Office Keeper at Somerset 
House, and lived there. Somerset House adjoins 
King's College, and this was fortunate for Harry, 
who, when he first went to London, had much 
outgrown his strength. The hours spent in the 
little parlour tucked away in the vast building 
were not without charm for the home-loving boy. 
Sitting on the corner of the horse-hair sofa, with 
its relentless early Victorian back and its unyielding 
springs, trying, mostly in vain, not to disturb 
Mrs. Fearon's best antimacassar, he would cheer- 
fully play cribbage by the hour with his hostess, 
while his host expounded pungently on the ques- 
tions of the day. Harry had passed from the 
Liberalism of the country home to the Liberal- 
ism of the metropolis. For both, Bright and 
Cobden were now leaders and standard-bearers, 
though Lord Palmerston was the Party Chief. 
Free Trade had been won, but neither Parliament 
nor country had settled down to it as a policy, and 



20 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

the need of another and more democratic Reform 
Bill was looming up on the political horizon. 

These were the days that followed the abortive 
revolutions of '48. The battle for political in- 
dependence was raging everywhere, but both 
leaders and rank and file were learning with 
bitterness to make haste slowly. None the less, 
hearts were glowing hotly for Freedom, and while 
Fawcett was in London, Kossuth, the Hungarian, 
was welcomed with enthusiasm. He followed 
Carl Schurz, that valiant apostle of Liberty, to 
America, where Garibaldi was already working at 
his soap factory on Staten Island. There was no 
doubt as to the heartiness of Kossuth's reception 
across the Atlantic. The fire of Freedom burnt 
to high heaven there : was it not sufficient proof 
of this that the dandies of that land reverently 
encased their mighty brains in the Kossuth hat ? 
Talk of these great men, of their vain endeavours, 
of the persecution of the poor, of the need of open- 
ing cages and letting in the light of Freedom, made 
its mark on Harry, and he often spoke afterwards 
of Fearon's ' quaint and forcible ' phrases. 

In 1 85 1 was the great Exhibition in Hyde Park. 
Did Harry's tall head peer above the crowd that 
lined the streets as Queen Victoria drove in state to 
the opening of that proud achievement ? One would 
like to think that once with seeing eyes Fawcett 
beheld the little lady who presided over England's 
destinies throughout his working life. 

And now Mr. Fawcett, senior, conscientiously 



THE BOY LECTURER 21 

counting his pennies, and the abihty which his 
son had already shown as a student, went to his 
neighbour, the Dean of SaHsbury. He showed the 
Dean Harry's mathematical papers, and asked for 
advice about the next step. It was not customary 
for one of Harry's social standing to go to a uni- 
versity, and the strain on the paternal purse to 
send him there would be considerable, but the 
Dean had no doubt that Cambridge offered the 
proper opening. The sacrifice was cheerfully 
made. 



CAMBRIDGE 



' I count life just a stuff to try the soul's strength on 
-educe the man.' — Browning. 



CHAPTER III 

THE TALL STUDENT 

Peterhouse — Quoits and Billiards — Trinity Hall — A 
Fellowship — Lincoln's Inn. 

Harry knew that for his father's sake it was The new 

Under- 
necessary for him to be self-supporting as soon graduate. 

as possible, and therefore chose his college on 

purely financial grounds. He went to Peterhouse, 

where the fellowships could be held by laymen, 

and were reported to be of unusual value. 

His great friend, Sir Leslie Stephen, saw him 

there for the first time. We cannot do better than 

quote from Sir Leslie's biography of Fawcett the 

impression his subject then made upon him : 

* I saw Fawcett for the first time a few months 
after his entrance (in October 1852). ... I could 
point to the precise spot on the bank of the Cam 
where I noticed a very tall, gaunt figure swinging 
along with huge strides upon the towing path. 
He was over 6 feet 3 inches in height. His chest, 
I should say, was not very broad in proportion to 
his height, but he was remarkably large of bone 
and massive of limb. 

* The face was impressive, though not handsome. 
The skull was very large ; my own head vanished 



26 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

as into a cavern if I accidentally put on his hat. 
The forehead was lofty, though rather retreating, 
and the brow finely arched. 

* The complexion was rather dull, but more than 
one of his early acquaintance speaks of the bright- 
ness of his eye and the keenness of his glance. 
The eyes were full and capable of vivid expression, 
though not, I think, brilliant in colour. The 
features were strong, and, though not delicately 
carved, were far from heavy, and gave a general 
impression of remarkable energy. The mouth 
long, thin-lipped, and very flexible, had a character- 
istic nervous tremor as of one eager to speak and 
voluble of discourse. . . . 

' A certain wistfulness was a frequent shade of 
expression. But a singularly hearty and cordial 
laugh constantly lighted up the whole face with 
an expression of most genial and infectious good- 
humour.^ 

' On my first glimpse of Fawcett, however, I was 
troubled by a question of classification. I vaguely 
speculated as to whether he was an undergraduate, 
or a young farmer, or possibly somebody connected 
with horses at Newmarket, come over to see the 
sights. He had a certain rustic air, in strong 
contrast to that of the young Pendennises who 
might stroll along the bank to make a book upon 
the next boat race. 

* Sir Leslie Stephen, speaking of the photograph reproduced to 
face p. 26, says, ' The rather pecuhar expression of the eyes 
results from the weakness of sight presently to be noticed which 
made him shrink from any strong light.' 




HENRY FAWCETT BEFORE HE WAS BLIND 



THE TALL STUDENT 27 

' He rather resembled some of the athletic figures 
who may be seen at the side of a north-country 
wrestling-ring. Indeed, I fancy that Fawcett may 
have inherited from his father some of the char- 
acteristics of the true long-legged, long-limbed 
Dandie Dinmont type of north-countryman. The 
impression was, no doubt, fixed in my mental 
camera because I was soon afterwards surprised 
by seeing my supposed rustic dining in our College 
Hall. I insist upon this because it may indicate 
Fawcett's superficial characteristics on his first 
appearance at Cambridge. 

' Many qualities, which all his friends came to 
recognise sooner or later, were for the present 
rather latent, or, maybe, undeveloped. The first 
glance revealed the stalwart, bucolic figure, with 
features stamped by intelligence, but that kind of 
intelligence which we should rather call shrewdness 
than by any higher name.' 

At first the men of his own year were inclined Sports and 

TT • 1 • J J Games. 

to estimate Harry as an outsider in sports and 

games. His simple provincial ways gave little 

sign of expert skill. But he won his way in 

dramatic fashion. An undergraduate nick-named 

the ' Captain ' challenged him to a game of quoits. 

Salisbury's native game is quoits ; Harry was well 

trained, and won easily. Then the battle shifted 

to billiards. Captain's score pushed steadily a successful 

ahead until in a game of a hundred points he had gfilJards. 

ninety-six to Harry's seventy-five : four points 

more for the Captain, twenty-five for Harry. The 



28 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

onlookers vociferously offered ten to one on the 
Captain. Fawcett gravely took all the bets offered 
at this rate, and any others that he could get, and 
then calmly, in a single break, made the twenty- 
five necessary points. 

Fawcett is quoted as having given this account, 
* Bets were forced on me ; but the odds were 
really more than ten to one against my making 
twenty-five in any position of the balls, but I saw 
a stroke which I knew that I could make, and which 
would leave me a fine game.' No matter by what 
magic the feat was achieved, it filled his pockets, 
and cleared for ever any doubts in his companions' 
minds as to the capacity and shrewdness of ' Old 
Serpent,' as he was then dubbed, and by which 
nickname he went for a brief time. 

He never gambled again. The story is paralleled 
in later years by an equally solitary financial 
speculation. He then showed the same quickness 
in seizing the facts and calculating the chances, 
the same boldness in acting on his own judgment, 
and the same restraint in not repeating the 
adventure. 

He disapproved of gambling, and had a whole- 
some dislike of it. His sense of fun made it im- 
possible for him ever to have a holier-than-thou 
attitude, but his common sense and natural good- 
ness kept him singularly free from the failings so 
common among his associates. While anything 
but a Puritan, he * was in all senses perfectly blame- 
less in his life.' 



THE TALL STUDENT 29 

He had a rare talent for friendship, attracting Making 
people to him as easily as he was attracted to 
them, and his faculty of making friends and keep- 
ing them held to the end. He was never known 
to lose a friend. 

Those who knew him well appreciated his strong 
intellectual equipment. Perhaps his chief char- 
acteristics were his absolute normality, his re- 
markable freedom from self-consciousness, his 
common sense, and his ever-present sense of fun. 
These early years at the university, when the lank 
boy was emerging into the statesman, were years 
of great happiness and joviality. Fawcett found 
many congenial spirits, and formed intimacies 
among men destined to distinguished careers. 
Most of his associates were good workers, but not 
particularly given to intellectual subtleties. Music 
made slight appeal to him, and he was flagrantly 
ignorant of classics and modern languages, and 
made no pretence to culture. The young Cam- 
bridge men of this period were greatly afraid of 
sentimentality, and devotees of the * God of Things 
as they are.' 

But there was one subject peculiarly attractive 
to the men with whom Fawcett consorted — 
political economy. And in those days political 
economy meant Mill. His book, gathering to- 
gether all the last words of the science, had been 
written a very few years before Fawcett went to 
Cambridge. It had had a phenomenal success, 
and it and its author were enjoying a phenomenal 



30 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

authority. Edward Wilson, a brilliant Senior, 
well represented the feeling of his day, when he 
would confute all opposition by an apt quotation, 
leaving Mill triumphantly supreme, and then close 
his vindication with the cry, ' Read Mill ! Read 
Mill ! ' Fawcett did, from early till late, until he 
knew the book by heart. As he was thoroughly 
inoculated with this cult, his reverence for Mill 
was one of his strong steadfast beliefs through 
life. 

Fawcett begrudged time taken from his books, 
and never rowed in his college boat, although Sir 
Leslie Stephen writes : 
Boating. ' That he occasionally performed in the second 

boat, I remember by this circumstance, that I can 
still hear him proclaiming in stentorian tones and in 
good vernacular from an attic window to a captain 
of the boat on the opposite side of the quadrangle, 
and consequently to all bystanders below, that he 
had a pain in his inside and must decline to row. 
I have some reason to think that he had felt bad 
effects from some previous exertions, and had been 
warned by a doctor against straining himself. I 
have an impression that there was some weakness 
in the heart's action. Fawcett, like many men who 
enjoy unbroken health, was a little nervous about 
any trifling symptoms. One day we found him 
lying in bed, complaining lustily of his sufferings, 
and stating that he had dispatched a messenger 
to bring him at once the first doctor attainable. 
A doctor arrived, and his first question as to the 



THE TALL STUDENT 31 

nature of Fawcett's last dinner resolved the con- 
sultation into a general explosion of laughter, in 
which the patient joined most heartily.' 

It was characteristic of Fawcett that he treated 
all men as equals, and took from them the best of 
what they had to offer. He became intimate with 
men of all ages. Mr. Hopkins, a Peterhouse man, 
with whom Fawcett read, had received his B.A. in 
1827, twenty-five years before Fawcett's appear- 
ance at Cambridge ; but this difference in age did 
not prevent a close bond. Fawcett never alluded 
to Hopkins without great enthusiasm, and in the 
days of his grave trial this friend was the most 
helpful of all. He was of great service in the first 
years at Cambridge, urging Fawcett to regard the 
mathematical studies necessary for taking a good 
degree as valuable intellectual gymnastics. Fawcett 
with his usual keenness and common sense was 
quite alive to the fact that a good degree was a 
distinct commercial asset, and said that he would 
rather be Senior Wrangler in the worst year than 
second to Sir Isaac Newton. His definite aim in 
life — a political career— made any wanderings into 
study for its own sake of no interest to him. He 
planned through life so to select that he might 
obtain. 

From the days of declaiming in the chalk-pit 
at Queenwood, Fawcett had realised the value of 
public speaking. 

The great Macaulay, Sir William Harcourt, and 
other distinguished men had tried their oratorical 



32 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

pinions in flights at the Debating Club called ' The 
Union.' Fawcett joined, and after some tentative 
efforts, despite his friends' amusement and dis- 
couragement, boldly won his way, and became a 
good speaker. He worked over his orations care- 
fully, and by great persistence gained an easy and 
fearless manner of speaking, and we find that he 
The Debater. Opened debates on National Education and Uni- 
versity Reform. 

In these years the events which led to the 
Crimean War provided the chief subjects of debate, 
such as the foreign policy of Austria and Prussia, 
the independence of Poland, and the character 
of the Emperor Nicholas. On these questions 
Fawcett did not share the views of John Bright, 
who was then making his great speeches on behalf 
of peace ; but the undergraduate's democratic 
sympathies are clearly shown in his advocacy of 
non-sectarian National Education, of a motion 
that 'the party called ** Cobdenites " have done 
the country good service,' or in favour of a ' con- 
siderable extension of the franchise,' and of ' Uni- 
versity Reform.' 

It was during this period of careful self-training 
that Fawcett gradually reduced his style of speak- 
ing to that simplicity and directness which became 
so marked throughout his career. There is a linger- 
Good-bye to ing trace of grandiloquence and schoolboy rhetoric 
quence.°" ^^ ^^1 essay Written on the merit of Pope's poetry, 
but that seems to have been his swan-song to 
elocution with frills. 



THE TALL STUDENT 33 

Fawcett left Peterhouse in his second year, and 
went to Trinity Hall as a pensioner, thus reduc- 
ing the expense to his father. There chances for 
scholarship were alluring, and several immigrants 
from other colleges joined forces at Trinity Hall. 
There also he met Leslie Stephen, his lifelong 
friend and biographer, who speaks of this friend- The Friend 

1 . , r 1 • M r IT > of Friends. 

ship as one 01 the greatest privileges or my lire. 

Fawcett set to work with a will to carry off the 
Senior Wranglership. We are told that in the 
Tripos, for the first and the last time in his life, 
Fawcett's nerve failed. Though he got out of 
bed and ran round the college quadrangle to 
exhaust himself, he could not sleep, and failed to 
gain the success which meant so much to him. He 
sank to seventh ; but in spite of his comparative 
failure he had shown marked ability, and made 
so great an impression by his work, that he was 
elected to a fellowship at Christmas 1856. 

He adhered to his boyish ambition of entering Pounds and 
Parliament, but there were still great obstacles in ^""' 
his way. Beyond his fellowship, which brought 
him ;^250 a year, he had no income of his own. 
His father was not a rich man, and the strain on 
his purse to support his other three children was 
sufficient. Harry resolved, therefore, to make his 
way by a career at the Bar, and while still at 
Cambridge entered Lincoln's Inn. When he had 
won his fellowship he settled in London, and set 
himself to study law. No one who came in con- 
tact with him at this time had any doubt that he 

c 



34 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

would arrive at his goal by main force. A friendly 
firm of solicitors had already promised that he 
should have opportunities, and his great talent 
for working well with all sorts of people, his genius 
for friendship, and his real business ability bid well 
for the success of his plan. His will was inflexible, 
his good-nature chronic, and his acuteness of mind 
and general ability far beyond the average. 

In the mimic legislature of the Westminster 
Debating Society, which consisted of young 
barristers and journalists, Fawcett soon became 
the leader of the Radical party. The organisation 
followed the form of the House of Commons. It 
is said that Bulwer Lytton had once paid it a visit, 
and said afterwards that he had entered in a fit of 
abstraction, mistaking it for the House of Commons, 
and only discovered his error upon finding that 
there were no dull speeches and no one asleep, 
which seems to prove that it must have been a most 
remarkable society. 

One of his contemporaries, who saw Fawcett in 
the height of these pseudo- Parliamentary triumphs, 
speaks of his * resonant voice, wild hair, and ex- 
pressive eyes.' But just at this point, when he 
seemed to be setting with full sail on the channel 
towards success, his eyes began to trouble him. 



CHAPTER IV 

A SET BACK 

A Trip to France — Wiltshire French — A Discouragement. 

In 1857 the great Critchett warned him against 
making any exertion, and forbade his reading. 
Though he appeared cheerful as usual with his 
family, a friend recalls that during his entire 
career he had never known him to be so 
depressed. 

In 1857 he was glad to find occupation by taking 
a pupil to Paris. Miss Fawcett went with them. 
The pupil was to read mathematics and to learn 
French, while it was hoped that the master's eyes 
might benefit under the care of foreign specialists, 
as well as by the change. 

The oculists gave him some slight encourage- 
ment: one ordered low living, and the other high. 
It was characteristic of Fawcett that he frugally 
chose the former. 

In Paris our long Wiltshire man seems to have The Ways of 
been much of a fish out of water. The Latin ^ ^ ^^^^ ' 
morals and customs were naturally not sym- 
pathetic to his uncompromising though uncen- 
sorious nature. He could never cope successfully 
with a foreign language. There was even a 



36 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

frequent strong Wiltshire flavour about his Enghsh 
speech. The difference between * February ' and 
' Febuwerry * never became apparent to him. At 
Alderbury he had learnt French with a pronounced 
English accent. In Paris he now delighted the 
French ladies at the pension where he stayed with 
his peculiar and unique speech. There was a 
Madame Palliasse there whom, much to her joy, 
he called Madame Peleas. 

He came back from France with his eyes still in 
bad shape and his spirit totally unresponsive to 
the lure of Gaul. 

On his return he was extremely tried by his 
inability to work. His real feelings about life at 
this time are well expressed in a letter to his dear 
friend, Mrs Hodding : 
Confession. ' I regard you with such true affection that I 

have long wished to impart my mind on many 
subjects. . . . You know somewhat of my char- 
acter ; you shall now hear my views as to my 
future. I started life as a boy with the ambition 
some day to enter the House of Commons. Every 
effort, every endeavour, which I have ever put forth 
has had this object in view. I have continually 
tried, and shall, I trust, still try not only honourably 
to gratify my desire, but to fit myself for such an 
important trust. And now the realisation of these 
hopes has become something even more than the 
gratification of ambition. I feel that I ought to 
make any sacrifice, to endure any amount of 
labour, to obtain this position, because every day 



A SET BACK 37 

I become more deeply impressed with the powerful 
conviction that this is the position in which I could 
be of the greatest use to my fellow-men, and that 
I could in the House of Commons exert an influence 
in removing the social evils of our country, and 
especially the paramount one — the mental degrada- 
tion of millions. 

' I have tried myself severely, but in vain, to 
discover whether this desire has not some worldly 
source. I could therefore never be happy unless 
I was to do everything to secure and fit myself 
for this position. For I should be racked with 
remorse through life if any selfishness checked such 
efforts. For I must regard it as a high privilege 
from God if I have such aspirations, and if He has 
endowed me with powers which will enable me to 
assist in such a work.' 

This is an interesting revelation of a pure 
ambition. Fawcett wished to succeed for no 
self-regarding purpose. His ideals were noble, 
and his ambition their legitimate accompaniment. 

About this time he shows a lively interest in the 
social condition of the people. After an expedition 
to some manufacturing towns he mentions an 
investigation of ' gaols and ragged schools,' and 
shows much interest in these sombre centres. He 
describes a meeting with a good gentleman whom 
he characterises as ' so fine and perfect an example 
of a venerable Christian.' 

Even twelve hours spent in one day at the House 
of Commons does not seem to have been for him 



38 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

an overdose of politics. It did not tax his eyes, 
and it delighted his ears, though he writes, ' No 
one need fear obtaining a position in the House of 
Commons now ; for I should say never was good 
speaking more required. There is not a man in 
olsridf and *^^ Ministry can speak but Lord Palmerston ; 
Gladstone. Disraeli is the support of the Opposition ; but, 
although he was considered to have achieved a 
success that night, it was done by uttering a 
multitude of words and indulging in a great deal 
of clap-trap. 

' Gladstone made the speech of the evening, and 
he is a fine speaker. He never hesitates, and his 
manner and elocution are admirable ; in fact, in 
this he resembles Bright, but is, in my opinion, 
inferior to Bright, in not condensing his matter.' 

Towards the close of this letter there is an 
exceedingly interesting statement, prophetic of 
his future interests. He says that he feels that 
Australia must have in future a great effect on 
England, and adds these significant words, * India 
too is the land I much desire to see and know; and 
it ought to be by any one who takes part in public 
life.^ 

The doctor now forbade Fawcett all reading, for 
fear that he might lose his sight. He took this 
sentence philosophically, commenting that it came 
at an extremely favourable time, when he could 
best afford to take a holiday. He writes, ' I cannot 
be sufficiently thankful that it has occurred just 
now, when perhaps I can spare the time with so 



A SET BACK 39 

little inconvenience. . . . Maria will resign her 
needle with great composure to devote herself to 
reading to me. I shall thus get quite as much 
reading as I desire, and I can well foresee that, far 
from being a misfortune, it may become an advan- 
tage, since it will perhaps for the next year induce 
me to think more than young men are apt to do : 
it will give me an opportunity to solidify and 
arrange my knowledge, and you will know how 
happy Maria and I shall be together.' 

About this time a classmate writes of him : ' We Discouraged, 
recognised as fully as at a. later period his energy 
and keen intelligence. If we were still a little blind 
to some of his nobler qualities, we at least recognised 
in him the thoroughly good fellow, whose success 
would be as gratifying to his friends as it was con- 
fidently anticipated.' 

Yes, anticipated and ardently hoped for; but 
could it be expected by Fawcett himself, doomed as 
he was to idleness by the condition of his eyes, his 
doctor's warnings, and their orders for absolute 
rest — and unfitted as he now was for work, and 
able only to send an occasional letter to the papers 
on matters of current interest ? 

He was staying at his father's house at Longford 
with such patience as he could muster. He, how- 
ever, enjoyed sitting in the fields near Salisbury 
and listening to the sounds about him. The mur- 
muring streams, the songs of birds, and the hum 
of drowsy insects seemed to bring him comfort and 
rest. 



WINNING BACK 



' If you can meet with triumph and disaster 
And treat those two impostors just the same.' 

Kipling. 

' Life is sweet, brother.' 

' In sickness, Jasper ? ' 

' There 's the sun and the stars, brother.' 

' In blindness, Jasper ? ' 

' There 's the wind on the heath.' 

Borrow. 



Accident. 



CHAPTER V 

DARKNESS 

A Shooting Accident — Blindness — Readjustment. 

Unfortunate as was the fate which condemned 
him to so much trouble with his eyes, it was a 
fortunate and strange preparation for what was to 
follow. Obedient to his physician's injunctions 
to give up work, Fawcett remained with his family 
near Salisbury. On 15 September 1858, he went 
shooting with his father. Together they climbed a Shooting 
Harnham Hill. Fawcett turned to look back at the 
glorious view, bathed in an autumn light, the trees, 
already turning to gold, the village nestled in the 
valley through which the river Avon wound, the 
spire of the great cathedral touched with glory 
by the setting sun. To Fawcett this was one of 
the loveliest views in England: he looked on all 
this beauty for the last time. 

As they were crossing a field he advanced in 
front of his father, who, suffering from incipient 
cataract of the eye, did not see his son. A partridge 
rose and the father fired, hitting the bird, but some 
of the stray shot penetrated both the son's eyes, 
blinding him instantly. To protect his eyes from 

the glare he was wearing tinted spectacles, both 

43 



44 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

glasses were pierced, but the resistance which 
they offered to the shot prevented the charge 
entering the brain, and so probably saved his life. 
His first thought on being blinded was that he 
would never again see the beautiful view which he 
loved so dearly. There is a widely current story, 
which, however, we have been unable to verify, 
that after the accident his first words to his agonised 
father were, ' This shall make no difference.' 

He was taken back to his father's house in a 
cart, and his first words to his sister as she received 
him there were, ' Maria, will you read the newspaper 
to me ? ' This way of taking his calamity sounded 
the key-note of his heroic acceptance of it from the 
Unflinching first. His Unflinching bravery gave the cue which 
Bravery. j^^ wished his family to follow. His calmness 
remained unaltered even when the doctors gave 
little encouragement. All knew that there was 
not much hope, though he was in such splendid 
physical condition that he suffered very little 
pain. 

Mrs, Fawcett, whom her relations called ' the 
brightness of the house,' was having tea with some 
friends when her wounded son was brought in. 
When she saw him she bravely tried to control her 
grief, but it was so overwhelming that she took 
refuge in another room, and only appeared in the 
short intervals when she was able to master her 
distress. 

In this crisis his sister Maria was a tower of 
strength. The poor father seemed more sorely 



DARKNESS 45 

stricken by the accident than the son. But for his 
daughter's wisdom, he would probably have lost 
his reason. All through the night Maria kept him 
busy at small, useful tasks, and for several days 
occupied both her mother and him as fully as 
possible. 

After a lapse of six weeks Fawcett was able for Blindness. 
three days to perceive light, but after that the 
curtain fell for the rest of his life, and he remained 
in total darkness. In the following June he suffered 
some pain in one of his eyes, and later submitted 
to an operation which was unsuccessful, and put 
the final seal on his calamity. Perhaps the father 
deserves as much sympathy as the son. Their 
relations had been particularly affectionate, and 
were, if possible, more intensely so after the 
catastrophe. The elder Fawcett often said that 
his grief at having blinded Henry would be less, 
if * the boy ' would only complain. But this was 
perhaps the only way in his life that the son refused 
to gratify the parent whom he loved so tenderly. 
He was never known to complain of his loss of 
sight, and used to say that blindness was not a 
tragedy, but an inconvenience. 

The life-long ambition of Fawcett to lend a 
hand in public affairs had been shared by his 
father, and the hope and pride which he felt in 
his son's career added, if possible, to the tragedy 
of seeing it so suddenly broken. The indomitable 
pluck shown by more than one blind man which 
makes out of his stumbling-block a m.ounting- 



46 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

stone had yet to be proven. It did not then seem 
possible for him to win even greater triumphs than 
he might have won if he had not been forced to 
sharpen his courage because he had to fight his 
battle in the dark. 

A friend who visited Fawcett a few weeks after 
the accident found him serene and cheerful, 
although his father was evidently heart-broken, 
and his appearance gave abundant evidence of it. 
Fawcett, though not much given to quotation, was 
fond at this time of repeating the phrase of Henry v. 
at the battle of Agincourt: 

' There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 
Would men observingly distil it out.' 

What Fawcett distilled from the evil thing which 
had befallen him was an iron determination, which 
triumphed over odds such as few have encountered 
on any battlefield. 
A Cloud. But the blind man's horizon had not yet cleared. 

His outlook, despite the loving care of his family, 
was still sad, and though he gave no sign, there was 
a fearful slough of despond still to be struggled 
through. Ten minutes after the accident, he had 
made up his mind to stick to his pursuits as much 
as possible, but how nearly possible was it for a 
blind man to succeed in Parliament, and to give a 
helpful impetus to the affairs of nations ? This 
was still at Fawcett's time in England untested 
and remained for him to show. He lacked fortune 
and social position to clear the road for him, and 



DARKNESS 47 

the letters of condolence that poured in mostly 
obstructed his path with futile sentimentality. He 
said, ' they give more pain than comfort,' and 
added that nothing pained him so much as these 
letters. The writers counselled resignation to the 
will of Providence, meekness, submission, and of 
course all implied inaction. But Fawcett asked 
what was the will of Providence. Why, without 
trying, should he suppose that inaction would be 
the nobler part for him to play. His sister read 
to him all the missives from the Job's comforters, 
and he, though much saddened, listened, * in a fixed 
state of stoical calm.' 

Into this atmosphere, heavy with grief, came the The Message 
message of a friend. His dear old Cambridge 
teacher, Hopkins, wrote admitting that blindness 
is ' one of the severest bodily calamities that can 
befal us,' yet added cheerfully : * But depend 
upon it, my dear fellow, it must be our own fault 
if such things are without their alleviation. . . . 
Give up your mind to meet the evil in the worst 
form it can hereafter assume. Now it seems to 
me that your mind is eminently adapted to many 
of those studies which may be followed with least 
disadvantage without the help of sight. . . . 

* I would suggest your directing your attention 
to subjects of a philosophical and speculative 
character, such as any branch of mental science 
and the history of its progress ; the Philosophy of 
Physical Science, as Herschel's work in Lardner's 
Encyclopoedia, Whewell's Inductive Philosophy, etc.. 



48 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

or any work treating on the general principles, 
views, and results of physical science. Political 
Economy, statistics, and social science in general 
are assuming interesting forms in the present 
day. 

' What a wide range of speculative study, full of 
interest, do these subjects present to us ! For any 
part of which, if I mistake not, your mind is well 
qualified. 

' The evil that has fallen upon you, like all other 
evils, will lose half its terror if regarded steadfastly 
in the face with the determination to subdue it as 
far as it may be possible to do so. 

' Cultivate your intellectual resources (how 
thankful you may be for them !) and cultivate 
them systematically: they will avail you much in 
your many hours of trial. Under any circum- 
stances I hope you will visit Cambridge from time 
to time. I '11 lend you my aid to amuse you by 
talking philosophy or reading an act of Shake- 
speare or a canto from Byron. I shall certainly 
avail myself of the first opportunity I have of 
paying you a visit at Longford, and shall engage 
you for my guide across the chalk hills. I may 
then perhaps find the means of indoctrinating you 
with a few healthy geological principles.' 

Hopkins had struck the right chord. He roused 
his pupil from his depression and gave him new 
hope and ambition. ' Keep that letter for me,' 
he said to his sister, and from its arrival dated 
his returning zeal and the spontaneous cheer- 



DARKNESS 49 

fulness which heretofore had been so skilfully 
assumed. 

Though the sanity and wisdom of this letter 
aroused Fawcett as nothing had before, it is not 
to be understood that his taking up life again 
depended upon the spur given to his hope and 
self-confidence by his old friend, but this did come 
at the psychological moment. It enabled him to 
shoulder his burden with more courage, and to 
begin again climbing towards the ambitions he had 
entertained before his blindness. Unhelped he a Rigid 
had planned to travel the road already begun, Resolution. 
deviating as little as possible from the course 
before mapped out ; and he would have done so 
without the comfort from his friend's advice. But 
the letter was undoubtedly a first milestone on his 
race towards the goal which he had set himself. 

Much has been said of the philosophy which is 
apt to accompany blindness, of the resignation and 
calm of those afflicted with it. The unusual 
feature in the bravery with which Fawcett met his 
calamity was his almost instantaneous resolution 
to disregard it, and to make good just as he would 
have made good without it. Too much honour 
cannot be given him for this extraordinary and 
immediate courage. 

Very soon after the accident he took up walking, 
and at once showed his fearlessness while going 
between his brother and a friend who has recorded 
the brave adventure. 

On leaving the house, he struck out at once with Walking. 

D 



50 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

the long, quick strides of his old walking era, ana 
naturally stumbled almost at the first step. One 
of the party caught him by the arm, and begged 
him to pick his steps more carefully. * Leave me 
alone ! ' was his reply ; ' I 've got to learn to walk 
without seeing, and I mean to begin at once — only 
tell me when I am going off the road.' To say that 
he knew not fear would be to give an impression 
of callousness which would be entirely false ; but 
it can be truly said that fear never kept him from 
carrying out his purpose. 

An early glimpse of the hard conflict and longing 
of his soul was given when walking with his dearly 
loved sister. He turned to her suddenly as if he 
had been thinking, and asked if she knew Southey's 
' Hymn before Sunrise in the Valley of Chamounix.' 
When she replied that she did not, he astonished 
her by reciting the poem with rare beauty and 
fervour. The vibrant voice gathered intensity 
as, with that wistful expression so often on his 
newly blinded face, he repeated the last lines : 

' Rise, O ever rise ! 
Rise like a cloud of incense from the Earth ! 
Thou kingly Spirit throned among the hills, 
Thou dread ambassador from Earth to Heaven, 
Great Hierarch ! tell thou the silent sky. 
And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun. 
Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God.' 

After his accident Fawcett took his meals with 
his sister from a tray in the drawing-room. When 
some weeks had passed, he was persuaded to 




MISS MARIA FAWCETT 



DARKNESS 51 

venture out with her to a quiet supper at the home 
of friends. Finding that it was not a formidable 
undertaking after all, and that he had an extremely Social Ways. 
interesting time, he determined to see as much of 
people as possible, and resumed his social ways. 

It was inevitable that at first his merriment and 
cheerfulness were a little bit laboured, but in an 
astonishingly short time they became invariable, 
and those closest to him detected no permanent 
depression. About everything but his sadness 
under his affliction, Fawcett was frank, but about 
this sadness he remained bravely reticent. 

He soon began candidly to enjoy life, and he 
seems to have gotten infinitely more of its beauty 
and happiness than the average person who is 
without handicaps. He had only had one fear, 
which he confided to his sister : it would be un- 
bearable for him if through loss of physical force 
he should become useless. 

Despite very great difficulty, Fawcett for some 
time tried to keep up writing with his own hand, 
and there are still several of his autograph letters. 
But he found the effort so great that he soon gave 
it up and depended entirely on dictation. He was 
not entirely loath to do this, because he thought 
the practice of dictation useful to him as a speaker. 
He never mastered Braille or any other system 
of printing for the blind, but depended on being 
read to. 

In many minor things Fawcett never acquired 
the dexterity possible to those who are blinded in 



52 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

youth. When his catastrophe came his habits 
were already too fixed, and he was too mature to 
adapt himself readily in unimportant matters. 
But his ingenuity in studying out scientific 
management of all the little problems of daily 
routine was marvellously practical and at times 
Catalogued evcn coniic. For example, he had all his clothes 

Coll3,rs 

carefully and legibly labelled with numbers, placed 
so as not to show during wear. In this way his 
garments might easily be identified by any one not 
familiar with his wardrobe. If he came home in 
a great hurry to metamorphise his attire, direc- 
tions like the following to his family or an aide-de- 
camp were not infrequent. He would call in his 
clarion, cheerful voice, probably from the door as 
he entered : ' I must dress quickly. Please help. 
Coat one, vest six, collar one, trousers three ; 
shoes and socks twelve and thirteen.' The rest 
we will leave to imagination, but there was no 
detail, even to pocket-handkerchiefs, which did 
not have its allotted place and catalogue number. 
He seems long to have remained faithful to his 
Salisbury tailor, a charming person of the old 
school who recently vouchsafed to the author the 
following recollections of his distinguished client : 
' Mr. Fawcett was very matter of fact and 
A Hero to methodical. A very honest kind of man, a sterling 

his Tailor. ■' 111 

man. He was very susceptible to cold, and was 
apt to carry changes of different underwear with 
him. He was particular about the material 
which he bought for his clothes, and always felt 



DARKNESS 53 

of it. He wouldn't be humbugged. You couldn't 
help liking him. He was that loose and easy in 
his walk, his limbs didn't seem to belong to him. I 
often heard him at the hustings, he spoke to the 
point — he made a thorough impression.' 



CHAPTER VI 

HAPPINESS 

The Clear-sighted Man— A Scot's Accent — Mountain 
Climbing — Skating — Riding, etc. 

His friends all testify to his spirit, his normal 
view of life frequently making them forget the 
fact of his blindness. A distinguished writer and 
diplomat, who had known Fawcett, on being asked 
what impression had been produced on him, re- 
plied quickly and quite simply, ' I think that he was 
an extraordinarily clear-sighted man.' Stephen 
in his biography uses this sentence : ' Fawcett 
had come to see more distinctly the real tendency 
of the proposal and to feel the full force of the 
objections to which he had never been blind.' 
Such remarks illustrate Fawcett's power of making 
people utterly forget his blindness. 

He was always grateful when his companions 
paid no attention to his affliction, and would talk 
to him about the scenery which they passed and 
the people whom they met as if he too could see 
them. He kept his resolve to be as happy as was 
possible, and often said : ' There is only one thing 
that I ever regret, and that is to have missed a 
chance for enjoyment.' He told his friends that 



HAPPINESS 55 

he intended to live to be ninety, and to relish every 
day of his life. He deliberately set about culti- How to be 
vating those tastes which would redound to ^^^^' 
his happiness : he taught himself to smoke, he 
patiently learned to listen to music, which had 
never unfolded its full joys to him before he had 
lost his sight. He so far succeeded as to be able 
to enjoy concerts and the opera. 

Doubtless, he systematically trained himself 
to remember. It was often remarked of him that 
if he had heard a voice once he would remember 
it again years after. One day in the Cambridge 
streets he was accosted by a Scottish professor. 
Fawcett could not remember him, but encouraged 
him to talk, and kept up his end of a long con- 
versation. After a good twenty minutes, a trick 
in the Scot's accent betrayed him, and Fawcett 
enthusiastically grasped his hand, and said, ' How 
do you do. Clerk Maxwell ? ' 

He never attempted to modify his vocabulary 
to fit his infirmity, and though the effect was at 
times strange he would greet people in the most 
natural way in the world with : ' How do you do? 
how well you 're looking ' ; or ' What 's the matter, 
you 're looking pale to-day ? Too much work, 
eh ? ' He commented on a friend's looking old, 
and added : ' But when men with that colour hair 
turn grey, they do look prematurely old.' 

It was not unusual for him to mimic people, 
whom he had only known since his bhndness, 
reproducing their gestures as well as their speech. 



56 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

Games. Later he learned to play cribbage and 6cart6 with 

cards pricked by his secretary with raised dots, 
in the fashion used by the blind to produce tactile 
prints. It took him but three days to conquer all 
difficulties in this new system, and he played with 
quickness and enjoyment. It is of no small in- 
terest to those who have studied the psychology 
of those blinded by accident in maturity to note 
this successful development of card playing. 
Shortly after his accident he had made an attempt 
which proved a total failure and yet afterwards 
he took it up without effort. This point should be 
dwelt on, and may well give courage to many an 
adult who is blinded. It shows that it is worth 
while to repeat often, and to hope for success in 
experiments which have been abandoned as futile. 
His hearing developed great acuteness, so that 
he could tell in towns by the pressure of the 
atmosphere if he was passing an opening caused 
by a cross street. When he walked in the country 
he loved the sound of the leaves, the feel of 
grass, the springing of the sod beneath his feet, 
the note of a bird or the leap of a fish. He seems 
to have tried to gather from his friends' descrip- 
tions an even deeper insight into the charm and 
subtleties of Nature than before it was shut out 
from his bodily vision. When, later, he enjoyed 
driving, he would stop the carriage in order to 
see the view at some favourite point. He was 
so fond of the view at Brighton that he often 
telegraphed a friend there to take him a walk to 



HAPPINESS 57 

Rottingdean. He always enjoyed this intensely, 
and spoke of the exquisite prospect as of one of the 
most wonderful in England. A breath of the sea 
stimulated him greatly. After a storm he loved 
to listen to the booming and breaking of the waves 
on the shore, and to feel the burn of the brine which 
was cast in his face as he breasted the receding gale. 
The little shells and the seaweed interested him, and 
he liked to pass the latter between his fingers to 
get the slippery gluey feeling, and to play with 
their little pods and queer tentacles. 

Fawcett loved great heights and mountains, a Enjoying the 
fellow climber says : * I went up Helvellyn with the Mountain 
Fawcett. It was his first mountain since he was "^"P^- 
blind — by no means his last. He held one end of a 
stick and I the other, to direct his turns ; and that 
was all the aid he needed. But it warmed one's 
heart to see his hearty enjoyment. He would 
have all the views described to him, what hills 
and lakes he saw, what colours they were, where 
the mist floated, and he anxiously asked of his 
secretary who was with us whether he enjoyed it 
as much as he expected.' 

Later he climbed the Cima di Jazzi, in order to 
see the glorious array of snow-covered peaks. It 
does not seem too much to believe that the highly 
developed blind have a feeling of the beauty which 
we say they cannot see, and a realisation of its 
presence which we lack and which it is impossible 
for them to explain. Though science has not yet 
been able to classify this faculty it may before 



58 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

long, and in the meantime there is sufficient evi- 
dence that this unclassified vision of the sightless 
to a great extent illumines their darkness. 

Excepting cricket and rackets, he gave up none 
of the sports of which he was already fond. 
TheGiant's ^{j j^js friends are agreed that it was almost 
impossible to keep up with him in his walks. They 
tried to modify his break-neck pace by various 
devices, such as engaging him in absorbing dis- 
cussions, or stopping to talk to some one on the 
road. But in vain. His long legs would shoot 
out like relentless walking beams, and if his friend 
happened to be small and holding on to Fawcett's 
arm before long he would be swept off his feet, 
hanging on like a mere appendage to the rushing 
blind man. 

Fawcett's recollection for the places that he had 
known before his blindness was astonishing. He 
could even remember in closest detail the country 
where he had been as a child at school. 
Skating. Having before his accident been a powerful 

skater he now took it up again, and after a few 
strokes showed no hesitancy. He was known even 
to accompany a skating race, leaving the course 
clear for the competitors and himself unaccom- 
panied getting over the rough ice on the side. Of 
his first attempt we read : 

' After a few strokes the only difficulty was to 
keep his pace down to mine. We each held one 
end of a stick, and as we were on the crowded 
Serpentine, we came Into a good many collisions. 



HAPPINESS 59 

As, however, we were a couple, and one of us a 
heavy man, we had decidedly the best of these 
encounters, especially as the conscience of our 
antagonists was on our side when they saw that 
they had tripped up a blind man.' 

In after years his recklessness became pro- 
verbial. He had been on a long expedition on the 
frozen Cam one cold winter, and was returning at 
sunset, chatting gaily with his friends to the 
accompanying click of their skates. They were 
flying along at a good fifteen miles an hour when 
they came upon a treacherous stretch of very 
rough ice. Fawcett, who accepted ice baths as 
part of the fun, urged them forward, zealously 
calling out : ' Go on — I only got my legs through ! ' 

In the early stages of his blindness, . Fawcett's Riding 
purse did not permit him to ride much. Moreover, 
some narrow escapes from accident — ^he was at one 
time nearly crushed at Salisbury by a cart — made 
him for a short time hesitate as to its expediency. 
But later he took it up with enthusiasm, at first 
accompanied by a riding master, and later by 
groups of friends. One of these tells how he would 
often ride over to Newmarket to spend Sunday. 
During the Sabbath he would nearly walk his 
friend off his legs, and on other days contented 
himself with walking his horse off its legs. With 
a box of sandwiches provided for luncheon, Fawcett 
would ride over from Cambridge at Christmas time 
to feast on the sunny side of the Devil's Ditch. 
He loved the chalk downs, and often stopped at a 



6o A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

cottage to ask for a draught of the sparkling, deep- 
well water. He enjoyed, too, gossiping with the 
shepherds about the flocks, for his early interest in 
agricultural matters was through life a marked 
characteristic. Once he came across the harriers, 
and joined in their gallops, trusting entirely to the 
prudence of his horse to select the most favourable 
gaps in the hedgerows. 

A frequent companion on these rides tells how 
one day, going at a brisk pace, she was so interested 
in something he was telling her that she did not 
see until within a few feet of it that they were at 
the edge of a precipitous gravel pit. Fearing to 
alarm Fawcett she sim.ply called out, * Stop at 
once, please.' Fawcett, always quick to act, 
pulled up short, and but for his prompt response 
to her call would certainly have been killed. 
Fawcett was so reckless and enthusiastic an 
equestrian that it is still a well-remembered tradi- 
tion in the livery-stables at Cambridge that 
Professor Fawcett took so much vitality out of his 
mounts that he was always charged extra. It 
must not be gathered that he was inhuman to his 
horses — they probably had just as good a time, 
relatively, as he had, but whatever he did, he did 
in a whole-souled and muscular fashion. 
Fishing. But for Fawcett, who had been trained from 

childhood as a fisherman, the crowning joy of all 
sports was a good fishing expedition. Very soon 
after the accident, he took up his fishing again. 
He remembered his native stream well, and to the 



HAPPINESS 6i 

end of his life he was always eager to run down to 
Salisbury to fish. His letters to his father abound 
in reference to angling parties, past and to come. 
He gave directions about his fishing-boots (they 
were so frequently in use that they must have had 
a simple number in his catalogue of clothes) and 
instructions to secure some expert angler to accom- 
pany him, or framed some subtle tactics for way- 
laying and ensnaring some particularly elusive 
aquatic prey, who had perhaps been known to his 
neighbours but had remained uncaught by them. 
Many friends urged him to try their waters for 
trout, pike, salmon, jack-fishing, and he enjoyed 
their hospitality greatly. His father who was 
devoted to the sport, in which he excelled even 
after his ninetieth year, was very fond of accom- 
panying him. Fawcett's early practice enabled 
him to throw a fly with great accuracy. He was 
fond of combining his amusements, and would 
wade in the stream while one of his great friends 
often went with him, though walking on the bank 
so as not to throw his shadow on the water, but so 
that he could talk to his heart's content without 
disturbing the angler. Fawcett was wont to say 
that trout hear very badly, and are not distracted 
by political economy. So fond was Fawcett of Trout and 

11 r 1 • r • 1 • 1 ^ ' r Political 

the study of his favourite subject that his nrst Economy. 
secretary records how in moments snatched be- 
tween fishing he would accompany Fawcett to a 
tea-house, where he would read to him Mill's 
Political Economy. 



62 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

Those who accompanied him fishing are agreed 
that he was a much better fisherman than sighted 
people generally are. This may have been due 
to his extraordinary patience, or to his zeal in 
learning from the experts with whom he associated. 

A Salisbury friend who often fished with him 
says : ' He would make his way through anything. 
He often walked along the river's edge fishing, 
and he never fell in. One day he was fishing and 
caught his line in a tree overhead. He exclaimed 
to his secretary, who came up, ' ' Can't you see it ? " 
then, with added impatience, "See it 's up there, I 
can see it ! " ' 

With his characteristic pluck he did not hesitate 
to wade in the stream or to cross a narrow plank. 
He enjoyed all the roughing incidents in fishing, 
even bumping about in a donkey cart full of fish, 
and he was particularly glad to meet the country 
folk and have a chat with them. 



meant for 
Fawcett. 



CHAPTER VII 

DISTRACTION 

Fishing — In the Commons — Need for Distraction — 
What Helen Keller thinks — Sir Francis Campbell — 
Leap Frog — Despair and Cheer — Paupers and Political 
Economy. 

It sometimes seems inconsistent that one so acutely what Fishing 
sensitive as Fawcett was to suffering of all kinds 
should not have hesitated to get pleasure from a 
sport involving the necessary cruelty of fishing. 
In discussing this, Fawcett at times would main- 
tain the usual ground of the fishes insensibility to 
pain, but again he would frankly justify it as the 
best method of keeping himself employed and dis- 
tracted from the weighty problems which often 
overburdened him. 

It must not be forgotten that, however clever in 
adapting themselves to their misfortune the blind 
are, they are relieved from the thousands of the 
distractions which disturb the concentration of even 
the best seeing worker. In his lecture-room the 
sighted teacher is unconsciously drawn from the 
monotony of his one purpose by seeing his mind 
play on the sensibilities of his hearers. 

In the House of Commons the statesman's mind 
is unconsciously diverted by the lights, the ex- 



64 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

pressions of his opponents, the sympathy on the 
faces of his partisans, the guests in the gallery, to 
say nothing of his imaginings concerning those 
hidden and gracious unseen personalities behind 
the screen in the ladies' gallery — that screen 
which, perhaps more than anything else in the 
House of Commons, piques the curiosity of the 
beholder, and sets his thoughts aglow with the 
Screened mystcrics of the Orient. If the indiscreet and 
Bonnetf. objectiouable person who devised that screen had 
left the wives and mothers and sweethearts of the 
members to regale the combatants in the arena 
beneath them with a smile of approbation, or a 
glimpse of their spring bonnets, or even the pang 
caused by the thought of the inevitable bill which 
belongs to such plumage, the path of duty and 
politics would have been less dull. 

Then, think of the countless literary distractions, 
the day's paper, the illustrated magazine, the 
picture posters, and even the advertisements which 
to the hurrying business man unconsciously suggest 
fresh trains of thought. Again, the sight of the 
crowd, with its noble and curious personalities, or 
the occasional patch of colour made by the pass- 
ing omnibus whose garish poster proclaims the 
latest star at the theatre. All these, and countless 
others, make up a kaleidoscope, which, however 
taxing and at times palling to the man with sight, 
are counter-irritants which make it difficult for 
him to over-concentrate or to become exhausted 
by harping continuously on one thought, to the 



DISTRACTION 65 

exclusion of all else. To think without interrup- 
tion the seeing man sometimes closes his eyes. 
The blind man's eyes are always closed, and there- 
fore to keep his spirits bright, to prevent morbidity 
and even insanity, occupations and amusement 
are not only advisable, but imperative. In frank 
recognition of this Fawcett felt that the larger good 
— his usefulness to the community — justified his 
* going fishing.' 

The great need of recreation brings as its corollary 
the advantages for uninterrupted thought, which 
are among the alleviations of the loss of sight. 
Helen Keller, in answer to the question. What is it what Helen 
to be blind ? said joyfully, * To be blind is to see ^^^^-^ '^'''^'^ 
the bright side of life.' She is perfectly sincere in 
this, and feels that in blindness, uncomeliness and 
ugliness can never obtrude, while imagination is 
free to paint the most sublime pictures. Not a 
few blind people have said that they would prefer 
not to see, because with sight would come many 
disillusionments. 

It is a question of great interest whether either 
Miss Keller or Fawcett, without their spur from 
blindness, without that need of iron determination 
and unflinching pluck to win their race in the 
dark, would, as seeing people, have attained 
their respective distinction and have been 
such great servants of humanity. Many fail on 
account of the insurmountable barriers which 
seem to accompany blindness, but not a few 
heroic souls are developed and stimulated by 

E 



66 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

their blindness in a way that nothing else could 
have equalled. To these ranks it seems that 
Fawcett belonged. 

He hesitated greatly to allude to his blindness, 
and we find him doing so voluntarily, only to help 
those similarly afflicted. It was a very painful 
thing for him to speak on behalf of the blind, and 
on one such occasion he confided to a friend that 
he had never been so nervous in his life. He hated 
to be put, or to place himself, in a position to evoke 
pity, still more to seem to show what he had 
achieved despite his handicap. 

He said to the blind, ' Act as if you were not 
blind, be of good courage, and help yourselves.' 
He advised the seeing, * Do not patronise ; treat 
us without reference to our misfortune ; and, above 
all, help us to be independent.' Also, he 
emphasised that * home associations are for the 
blind as important as for you ' (meaning the see- 
ii^g); ' you must not wall up the blind.' * Do not 
sever them from all the pleasures and fascinations 
of home.' 
Sir Francis He was particularly interested in the work of 

Campbell. j^^ Campbell, later Sir Francis Campbell, the 
intrepid American blind man who was knighted 
by King Edward for the splendid work he had 
done to emancipate the blind through education. 
Fawcett spoke often for the benefit of Campbell's 
work at the Royal Normal College for the Blind. 
The following quotations from Fawcett's speeches 
were written for this book by some of the blind 



DISTRACTION 67 

stenographers employed at the college, the work 
of which was inspired by Sir Francis. 

Fawcett, referring to the blind, said, * Nothing, 
he found, was so hard to bear as to hear people, 
when they spoke of the blind, assume a patronising 
tone towards them, as if they were suffering from 
something for which in some mysterious way they 
should feel thankful. The kindest thing that could 
be done or said to a blind person was not to use 
patronising language, but to tell him, as far as pos- 
sible, to be " of good cheer," to give him confidence 
that help would be afforded him whenever it was re- 
quired, that there was still good work for him to do, 
and the more active his career, the more useful his 
life to others, the more happy his days to himself.' 

To a blind and most responsive audience he said, Fawcett 
' I did not lose my sight until I had reached man- 
hood. I was twenty-five years of age at the time, 
and when I knew that my sight was gone, never to 
return, many friends came forward and, prompted 
by the kindest motives, advised me to adopt a 
life of quiet contemplation. I very soon, however, 
came to the resolution to live, as far as possible, 
just as I had lived before, following the same 
pursuits and enjoying, as well as I could, the same 
pleasures. (Cheers.) I would strongly advise 
those who may be similarly situated to try to pursue 
the same course, for I have found that there is a 
wide range of amusements in which I can take 
just the same delight as I did in days of yore. No 
one can more enjoy catching a salmon in the Tweed 



Reminis- 
cences, 



68 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

or the Spey, or throwing a fly in some quiet trout 
stream in Wiltshire or Hampshire. I can take 
the greatest deHght, accompanied by a friend, in 
a gallop over the turf ; a long row from Oxford to 
London gives me the same invigorating exercise 
that it used to do, and during the recent long frost 
I do not think any one in the whole country found 
more pleasure than I did in a long day's skating 
with a friend. Often in the Cambridgeshire fens I 
have skated fifty or sixty miles in the day. (Cheers.) 
It is a true remark that nature provides a wonderful 
compensating power, but I am bound to say that 
of all the compensations which I have found, the 
greatest is the generous and cordial readiness with 
which people are ever ready to come forward to 
offer us that assistance without which we are often 
powerless to do anything. (Cheers.) This with 
regard to our lot is certainly a silver lining to the 
dark cloud.' 

* There are at the present time some nine or ten 
different systems of printing for the blind. Each 
of these systems has its different advocates, and 
as the cost of printing is very heavy, a great and 
unnecessary outlay is incurred in printing the same 
book in many different ways. If an agreement 
could be arrived at to adopt one particular 
system, with the same outlay the numbers of 
books that would be brought within the reach 
of the blind would be increased manyfold, and 
an inestimable boon would be conferred upon 
them by having brought within their reach 



DISTRACTION 69 

a greater number of the masterpieces of English 
literature.' 

Fawcett spoke of an apparently hopeless blind 
boy who had come to the institution. At last his 
chance of making his way seemed assured, because 
Dr. Campbell had induced him to play leap-frog. Leap-frog. 
Fawcett said that that seemed to him * the one 
test which ought to be applied to any institution 
devoted to the training of the youthful blind. 
Notwithstanding,' he said, ' no one felt more than 
he, or was more anxious to acknowledge, that, 
however independent they might be made, they 
still constantly required some assistance ; and he 
felt that whatever he might be doing at the present 
time, he should be reduced to a state of entire 
helplessness if it were not for the friendly arm and 
helping voice which were always extended to him.' 

At a meeting to promote a scheme for the benefit 
of the blind an apostle of despair began a prepared An Apostle 
speech ; but Fawcett, who had preceded him, so ° espair. 
completely convinced his audience of the sanity of 
a cheerful and useful outlook when helping the 
bHnd that the apostle of despair found the wind 
completely taken out of his sails, and was forced 
to sit down with his speech unfinished. At the 
end of the controversy, when the gloomy speaker 
had retired, Fawcett said to Lady Campbell, * I 
hope I didn't hit him too hard ! ' 

Fawcett was most generous to his opponents, 
and feared lest his victories should have caused 
them the slightest suffering. 



70 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



Heartening 
the Blind. 



Wright of 
Salisbury. 



When Postmaster-General he was anxious to 
bring deaf and dumb assorters into the Post Office. 

When he heard that telegraphy was thought 
of as a possible occupation for the blind, he sent 
for Sir Francis Campbell, to talk the matter over 
at the Post Office with the Comptroller-General. 
' For,' said Fawcett, * if you think it is practical 
for the blind to be employed in this way, I shall 
give them a chance.' The plan was not considered 
practical, though Fawcett was eager for it. 

He was zealous to do anything he could by his 
energy and gaiety to help those afflicted as he was 
but who took a more despondent view of their 
condition. 

The frank recognition which he gives of his 
dependence in his blindness on the help of others 
gives touching insight into one of the integral 
qualities of his friendship. A friendship meant 
for him the acceptance of countless little services 
which it would be a privilege for his friend to 
perform, and while tacitly accepting these aids 
Fawcett felt deeply thankful, and sought auto- 
matically to do what he could in return. His 
kindness was not in the least of the give-and-take 
type ; he revelled in giving fully of his life and 
strength where there could not possibly be any 
return. 

An old fisherman and a delightful character, 
Wright of Salisbury, was a great friend of Fawcett. 
Wright was an ardent politician and a pronounced 
Liberal ; that he was a celebrated angler is proved 



DISTRACTION 71 

by Fawcett's remark, ' Why, Wright, I was in 
Wales fishing and they knew you there, and when 
I was in Scotland I asked if they knew you, and 
they said, " Oh yes, quite well."* The two used Paupers and 
to go fishing together, and Fawcett would make Economy. 
special request of his companion to tell him of 
every blind person they met. He never met any 
one afflicted with blindness without offering help. 
On one occasion, Wright has chronicled, he was 
greatly concerned after he had given a poor blind 
person alms, and asked whether Wright had noticed 
what coin he had given to the woman. When the 
fisherman said he thought that it was a ' florin or 
half a crown,' Fawcett exclaimed with a sigh of 
relief, ' Oh, I am so glad ; I was afraid I gave her 
a penny.' 

His ear was wonderfully acute, and he would 
detect the tapping of a beggar's stick on the side- 
walk at a great distance, or in the midst of the 
roar of London traffic. The distinguished political 
economist, as soon as he heard this little progressive 
noise, would let all his well-assorted theories of 
economy and social justice fly to the winds and 
hail the approaching beggar merrily, stop and have 
a few cheery words with him, and before they 
parted gave him some pence. His secretary 
never knew him to overlook a beggar or to fail to 
give him money. It is the only instance that I can 
find in his life where he did not live up to his 
principles. 



CAMBRIDGE AGAIN 



' And ye shall know the truth, 
and the truth shall make you free.' 

' Be swift to hear ; and let thy 
life be sincere ; and with patience 
give answer.' 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE PROBLEM OF THE POOR 

A Prime Object — Lincoln^ — Leslie Stephen — Daily Life 
at Cambridge — Deepening Interest in Social Questions. 

When Fawcett first began to pick up the threads Prime Object 

r 1 ' -..r -1 1 1 • T of his Career. 

of his hfe again he planned to continue reading 
for the Bar, and obtained special facilities from the 
Council of Legal Education. But about a year 
after his bhndness he decided to give up law alto- 
gether. There have been successful blind lawyers, 
but Fawcett's goal was not law but Parliament, 
and he shrewdly perceived that he might make his 
way to the front as quickly by distinction as a 
political economist as by good work at the Bar. 
To live at Cambridge among the colleges and 
streets that he knew and loved, and among the 
many intimate friends he had there, appealed very 
strongly to him in his first blindness. 

He determined to avail himself of all that the 
University had to give him. While continuing his 
economic studies he took occasion to give lectures 
and to attend and speak at meetings of learned 
societies. Above all, he sought to find and win a 
constituency. 

76 



76 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

Personality Let US try to realise what manner of man he 

a^^wenty- ^^^ when he went back to Trinity Hall. He was 
a little over twenty-five years of age, and a little 
over six feet three inches in height, not broad in 
proportion, but lanky ; of commanding presence, 
he had a voice of such volume that his friends used 
to say it ' scorned concealment.' Frank and trans- 
parent in all his relations with men and women, he 
hated subterfuge of any kind. His quick kind- 
ness saved him from hurting any one's feelings, 
though he was still somewhat rough in his ways. 
Never stereotyped in appearance or manner, nor 
really conventional, he had a distinction quite his 
own. His pronunciation never became entirely 
urbane, and his friends had much difficulty in 
persuading him that Professor Tyndall might be 
right in saying that glacier ice was a viscous fluid, 
but that he had never asserted it to be * vicious.' 

Fawcett hated tyranny in every form. His 
sympathies ranged from the smallest child forced 
to work in the English mines to the American negro 
enslaved, whose problems were then beginning 
to shake the Western Hemisphere. Deeply in- 
terested in America, Fawcett became an ardent 
Federalist and a great admirer of Lincoln. 

Not only by his build and love of justice does 
he suggest the great emancipator for whom he felt 
such interest. If Lincoln had lived in England it is 
probable that he would have lent a hand in some of 
the many problems which Fawcett helped to solve ; 
while if Fawcett had been born in a cabin in 



THE PROBLEM OF THE POOR 77 

Kentucky instead of by Salisbury Plain, it is not 
unthinkable that he might have been a great 
fighter for the cause of freedom and integrity of the 
Union. Another strong characteristic which these 
men shared was an ever-present sense of humour. 
In Fawcett it was akin to that of the big schoolboy ; 
practical jokes appealed to him and called forth 
his ringing laughter. His fun was of a hearty 
kind that suited his voice and his huge type. 
Perhaps Fawcett's humour would best be de- English Fun, 
scribed by the American as an English sense of Humour? 
fun, and by the Englishman as not in the least 
American. 

Lincoln's immortal wit, both in its defects as well 
as its perfection, could only have been the outcome 
of American conditions. But for the support and 
relief afforded to Lincoln by his intense, unfailing 
humour he would probably not have been able to 
bear the strain necessary to accomplish his mighty 
task ; but for his present love of fun and his elastic 
buoyancy of spirit Fawcett would not have been 
able to master his great affliction and to have con- 
tinued in his struggle on behalf of the down -trodden, 
ignorant, and afflicted of his country. 

His Conservative Salisbury tailor said recently of Grey Suits. 
him, * He was a very great anti-slavery man, and 
sympathised with the abolitionists in America.' 
We can imagine Fawcett holding forth in stentorian 
tones about the rights of the negro, while his small, 
gentle tailor tried in vain to make the new grey 
suit fit his giant customer. By the same authority 



78 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

we learn that Fawcett ' was very partial to grey 
suits.' 
Fawcett and He established himself at the Hall, as the college 
Stephen. -^ j^q^j^ [j^ Cambridge, in rooms in the main court 

that looked south and gathered all the sun grey 
Cambridge had to give them. They were on 
the first floor, and above them his attendant and 
guide, Brown, occupied some garrets. Leslie 
Stephen roomed on the same floor, and could 
reach Fawcett by passing through a lecture-room. 
The two men were always together, and Stephen 
writes that Fawcett's rooms seemed part of his 
own. 

Onlookers have said that Stephen's care of 
Fawcett at this time ' was beautiful to see ' ; it 
* was almost womanly.' The two men were curi- 
ously different in temperament and traditions. 
They seem to have shared little but their earlier 
politics and their love of walking. Stephen, from 
whom Meredith is said to have modelled his 
character of Vernon Whitford, was a writer and 
student, a descendant of writers and students. 
Though he seems to have much enjoyed the 
Cambridge society in which he was then living, 
he was usually the silent member of a company 
where Fawcett dominated by force of energy if 
not always by the intrinsic value of what he said. 

Fawcett's room was gay with photographs and 
the flowers which the blind man loved to have 
about him. His fondness for them was a strong 
and charming trait. In these days he usually 



THE PROBLEM OF THE POOR 79 

wore a flower in his button -hole. He loved having 
them about him ; through their fragrance and the 
delicacy of their petals he took in their beauty so 
completely that he seemed to lose little because he 
could not see them with his bodily eye. 

Trinity Hall is in the very heart of Collegiate 
Cambridge, wedged in between the Senate House 
and the Cam. Along the river lies the Fellows' The Fellows' 
Garden that Henry James has so warmly praised, the'^clm!" 
After Fawcett's death Stephen spoke of this garden 
and Fawcett's love for it. 

' I always associated Fawcett with a garden. 
He loved a garden because he could there take the 
exercise in which he delighted without the pre- 
cautions necessary for a blind man in public places. 
He loved it because he heartily enjoyed the sweet 
air and the scent of flowers and the song of birds. 
He loved it because he could . . . enjoy even the 
sights, the sky and the trees, through the eyes of 
others. He loved it not least because a garden- 
is the best of all places for those long talks with 
friends which were among the greatest pleasures 
of his life. The garden where I oftenest met 
Fawcett, and where I have talked with him for 
long hours, never clouded by an unkind word, is the 
garden of an old Cambridge College with a smooth 
bowling green, and a terrace walk by the side of 
the river, and a noble range of old chestnut trees 
and the grand pinnacles of King's College Chapel 
looking down through the foliage.' 

Within the limits of his college Fawcett moved 



8o A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

freely and alone. He would cross the court and 
find his way up and down stairs quite unattended, 
verifying places with his cane. A Cambridge 
friend tells how his coming would be heralded by 
his well-known step and by the tapping of that 
same cane. Announcing himself outside the door 
with * Hello, are you there ? ' he would come into 
the room, waving his stick about to locate objects. 
A hearty handshake would be followed by some 
such comment as ' How well you are looking,' or 
* I am sorry you are not looking so well to-day,' 
this information probably reaching him from the 
greeting of what was to him the tell-tale voice of 
his host. 

Sometimes he would wander in the court at 
night, annoying the sleepers by his tapping on the 
stone flags. Was it as a just retribution that one 
night his sleep was hopelessly broken by the con- 
tinuous singing of a nightingale near his window ? 
At last he could stand it no longer, and sought for 
a missile to drive the bird away ; his soap proving 
the only available ammunition, he hurled it at the 
offending mistrel, and routed him completely. 
But though the blind man achieved his purpose 
without injury to the nightingale, later he had a 
long and futile hunt for his cherished bit of soap, 
and his lusty voice was heard echoing along the 
historic Cambridge walls, ' Oh, I say, who will 
lend me some soap ? ' until that essential was pro- 
vided by a neighbour. 

He worked in the mornings, and between tea and 



THE PROBLEM OF THE POOR 8i 

dinner, the afternoons were given up to exercise, 
and the evenings to conversations interminable. 

His favourite walk was over the Gog Magogs, the Work and 
Cambridge Hills. They are perhaps the lowest ^^^''^• 
hills to be dignified with the name, but he insisted 
that the air was purer on their summit than any- 
where else, because there was practically nothing 
between him and the Ural Mountains. He would 
call attention to the outlook towards the dis- 
tant towers of Ely Cathedral, and invariably 
paused at certain points * to look at the view.' 
Through life he took the keenest joy in walking to 
some place where the scenery was beautiful, and, 
helped by his friends' description, he would see 
with their eyes. His love of Nature was intense ; 
he would often describe a sunset with such vivid- 
ness that he himself forgot whether he had actually 
seen it before he was blind, or had only beheld it 
in his mind's eye. 

The fascination political economy had for him 
grew as he worked. To him it was never the dry 
and impersonal science which freezes so many 
enthusiasms, but the science which is necessary 
knowledge for the statesman who wishes to better 
the condition of the man furthest down. We have 
seen how Fawcett's interest in the market folk at 
Salisbury began when he was a child. The sight 
of many industrious, hard-working people unable 
to support themselves in spite of the greatest 
frugaHty, and having nothing better to look for- 
ward to than the poorhouse, had left an indelible 

F 



82 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

impression ; he wanted to free these people so that 
they might have rational lives with a fair return 
for their hard work. His father's political example 
and his own sympathetic nature and wish to serve 
had made him from his youth a Radical. He had 
a passion for justice and a zeal to redress wrongs 
and to liberate the poor from the bondage in which 
their ignorance kept them. He regarded political 
economy and kindred studies as means to his end, 
and Parliament as the ultimate stronghold, from 
which he could direct his campaign. This was his 
prime object, and while achieving it he gathered 
on his way all the happiness and merriment that 
was honourably to be had. 

In the year that Fawcett was elected fellow of 
his college the question of reforming the tenure 
of the fellowships was newly opened, and at once 
he took a hot and revolutionary part. When he 
returned to Cambridge he continued to uphold a 
Freeing the poHcy which would Icavc the fellowships open to 
Fellowships, ^j^g freest competition. He insisted that neither 
religious opinions nor other disabilities, many of 
which existed, should be any bar. The issues 
involved by these reforms were intricate and came 
up for discussion in the House of Commons when 
Fawcett was a member ; but all through their 
varying phases he kept to the one view that fel- 
lowships should be aids to poor men who desired 
a university training and should be open to the 
competition of the ablest. 

But in 1858 fellowships could be held by un- 



THE PROBLEM OF THE POOR 83 

married men only, Cambridge society consisted 
largely of young men before their departure into 
those wider fields which permit of matrimony, and 
a few belated seniors lingering behind, bachelors 
by predilection or compulsion . The youthf ulness of 
the majority appealed to the youthful ; sanguine, 
buoyant, and sociable, they could boast of sufficient 
ability to have won them places in open competi- 
tion. If they gave evidence of the truth of the 
famous admonition of Dr. Thompson, the Master of 
Trinity College, that ' we are none of us infallible, 
not even the youngest of us,' their intercourse 
was only the more lively. 

Into this circle Fawcett came like a huge magnet, 
drawing to himself all kinds of curiously different 
people. He was most heartily welcomed every- 
where, and even when his hot Radicalism en- 
countered in some senior a wall of Conservative 
opposition, the wall soon crumbled under Fawcett 's 
unquestionable sincerity and good-will. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE GOOD SAMARITAN 

'Ask Fawcett ' — The Ancient Mariners and the Diplomat 
— Christmas Exceedings — Fawcett as Host — A Bore 
foiled — The British Association. 

But if no respecter of persons, Fawcett unfailingly 
took every opportunity to play the good Samaritan. 
Were a friend in trouble, this great rough com- 
forter was the first at hand to help. If ill, he had 
probably from the beginning been sitting daily at 
the patient's bedside, bringing good cheer, or aiding 
in the thousand and one ways which his under- 
standing of suffering, through his own great suffer- 
ing, had taught him. Nothing gave him greater 
joy than to help in this way. 

He was sent for on one occasion by an old 
gentleman on his deathbed. 

The invalid had shared some of his guest's 
tastes, and before the interview ended the old man, 
instead of dedicating his last hours to spiritual 
things, became so cheered and animated by his 
blind friend that he called from his bed for his 
fishing-tackle and a bottle of his best port. This 
sudden convalescence so scandalised the family 
that the vitahsing guest was not urged to call again. 

84 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN 85 

He was sure to give the heartiest, least morbid 
cheer, and revelled in his great privilege of service 
wherever it was needed, wherever he could enter. 
Moreover, his helpfulness was not spasmodic, it was 
continuous and unforgetting, and he was counted 
on as the most faithful and, in a homespun way, the 
most delicate of friends. It necessarily follows 
that he became a connecting link to a large circle 
of Cambridge friends. To the inquiry where any 
Cambridge man was, and how the fates were treat- 
ing him, it was the usual thing to say, 'Ask Fawcett.' ' Ask Faw- 
Whether the man had drifted away or had been 
wrecked financially, socially, or by bad health, the 
blind man always knew all about it, and had 
usually tried to set things right. He believed 
firmly in the need of ' keeping his friendships in 
constant repair.' He did not age prematurely and 
had the happy talent throughout life of seeing 
things from a youthful point of view. It was one 
of his principles to make friendships with younger 
men. Some of the most brilliant juniors found in 
him a warm and loyal comrade. 

He joined a famous boat crew known as the The Ancient 
Ancient Mariners, an entirely safe body of athletes therapiomat. 
not liable to over-exert itself. Fawcett's rowing- 
was as vigorous as it was erratic. , He could not 
keep time with the others, so they wisely made him 
stroke. 

The Ancient Mariners shockingly beguiled a 
trusting diplomat sent by Napoleon iii. to study 
Cambridge sport. The young envoy had just 



86 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

arrived at Cambridge and was taking in with close 
scientific observation all its characteristics. He 
paused while passing through the Backs as the 
Ancient Mariners stroked by Fawcett, sk^'ing 
horribly as was his wont, hove into sight. Full of 
interest, the Frenchman studied their movements, 
and was surprised when the learned body of pro- 
fessors passed at their aged and intellectual appear- 
ance. He spoke to two undergraduates standing 
by. * Pardon, messieurs, is that the famous 
Cambridge crew ? ' ' Yes,' solemnly responded 
one shameless youth. * But, monsieur, they are 
very old.' ' Oh yes,' came the answer, ' the strain 
in training makes them so.' Pondering on this 
shocking fact, the Frenchman industriously made 
notes which were later digested by his compatriots. 
Unfortunately history has not given us his report 
to the Emperor on the Cambridge crew. 
Trinity Hall. Trinity Hall was founded in 1350 by the far- 
sighted Bishop Bateman. He had been greatly 
alarmed by the terrible black death, and wished to 
provide against a scarcity of lawyers. A more 
genial benefactor sought to leave a merrier bequest, 
and provided for an annual Christmas festivity, 
properly ushered in by chapel service and followed 
by a Latin oration — a eulogy on Civil Law. These 
Yule-Tide * exceedings,' as they were gaily termed 
by the fellows, had a picturesque historic reputa- 
tion, and are well described by Leslie Stephen, who 
enjoyed them to the full. He writes : ' It was almost 
a religious ceremony. If we could not rival the 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN 87 

luxury of a civic banquet, there was an impressive Christmas 
solemnity about the series of festivities which ^stivmes. 
lasted some ten days at Christmas time. The 
college butler swelled with patriotic pride as he 
arranged the pyramid of plate — the quaint little 
enamelled cup bequeathed by our founder, which 
had, I think, a shadowy reputation for detecting 
poison ; the statelier goblet given by Archbishop 
Parker, which made its rounds with due ceremony 
that we might drink ' ' in piam memoriam fun- 
datoris"; and the huge silver punchbowl, which 
represented Lord Chesterfield's view of the kind 
of conviviality likely to be appreciated by the Fel- 
lows of his own period. The Master . . . beamed 
hospitality from every feature as he presided at 
the table, prolonging the after-dinner sitting till 
the port and madeira had made the orthodox 
number of rounds.' 

Fawcett loved these festivities, and rejoiced 
greatly when he could succeed in bringing his 
old friends back to Cambridge, where ' midst the 
clatter of forty pair of knives and forks and the 
talk of forty guests his ringing volleys of laughter 
would assert their supremacy.' 

A friend adds : * We used to argue whether 
Fawcett or one of his friends, whose lungs could 
emit a crow of superlative vigour, was capable of 
the most effective laughter ; but if the single 
explosion of his rival was most startling no one 
could deny that Fawcett was superior in point of 
continuous and infectious hilarity.' 



88 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

These Christmas functions would be accom- 
panied by long expeditions, walking, riding, or when 
weather permitted, skating. Fawcett would never 
lose a chance of this last, A Cambridge companion 
has told that ' as soon as it was even frosty, Fawcett 
wanted to go skating. Even if no one else risked 
it he was glad to open the season. Once early in 
the winter he insisted on skating on the river Cam 
at Cambridge. We took a boy with us. It was 
very rough. We skated below the lock, where 
there is a long space of river with a strong current. 
It wasn't at all safe, and I was relieved when I 
was able to persuade Fawcett to come ashore. 
Scarcely had I succeeded when two undergraduates 
appeared on the river. " I don't see why I can't 
skate if they can ! " said Fawcett. " They will be 
in the river in a minute," I replied, and so one of 
them was, and the boy whom we had taken with 
us and I were forced to become life-savers.' 

He always remembered to carry pennies in his 
pocket for the man to put on his skates, or oranges 
for the children. 

In 1859 Fawcett, who had recently opened a 
correspondence with Mill, hospitably asked him 
to the college Christmasing, but the great 
economist did not come. At different times 
Fawcett had many guests, notably Cobden, who 
came to see Fawcett in the summer of 1864 and 
charmed the Dons by his delightful urbanity. 
Fawcett as The great agitator was himself glad to make the 
discovery that Dons abate their political pre- 



Host. 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN 89 

judice to be hospitable. Professor Huxley was 
also gladly welcomed by Fawcett, besides other 
scientists, politicians, economists, and lawyers, 
famous in their time, and who if not immortals 
now at all events did their share to create that 
great epoch of betterment in the English world, 
the Victorian era. 

Fawcett had now become a well-known figure, 
and suffered the usual consequences. His strategy 
in self-preservation is described by one friend 
thus : 

' I was walking with him one day when he was 
stopped by the long conversation of a very unin- 
teresting Professor. A few days later, when we were 
again walking, I told Fawcett of the approach of 
the same old bore. " How far off is he ? " asked 
Fawcett. " About three hundred feet . . . now 
about a hundred and fifty." Fawcett's pace kept a Bore 
quickening and quickening so that I could hardly 
keep up ; when about twenty yards off his legs 
shot out like the huge pistons of an engine. I had 
to run to keep up with him. Like a flash of 
lightning we passed the Professor, Fawcett shout- 
ing as he sped furiously by, " How do you do. Pro- 
fessor ? Very fine day. Good-b^^e " ; and when 
the Professor in a few seconds was left a marvelling 
dot on the horizon, Fawcett turned to me and said, 
" He 's even slower than he looks ! " ' 

Fawcett revelled in Cambridge society, and 
constantly compared it with London, to its great 
disadvantage. He felt that no continuity was 



90 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

possible in the talk of London drawing-rooms, and 
that an enormous amount of time was lost in un- 
necessary pioneering before one could discover a 
ground of common interest. At last when you 
were established comfortably on this ground, you 
were briskly whirled away to repeat the tragedy 
in some other circle. He had no patience with the 
early break-up of London dinner-parties, owing 
to the custom of moving on to other functions, 
and he staunchly refused to go to * At Homes.' 
Cambridge In Cambridge life was so much simpler, men knew 

Society. ^^^^ other, so that no time was lost by preliminaries, 

and one could still have * talk such as Johnson 
enjoyed at the Turk's Head.' One had only to 
walk across a court to meet old friends, to strike 
at once into the vital things one cared about. 
Here serious subjects were considered seriously, 
and by men who were young enough to feel what 
they had to say and hope that their opinions would 
jog the old world a little from its hackneyed 
course. 

Stephen tells us how at Christmas time he 
would rejoice with Fawcett in an early and conver- 
sational breakfast ; then discuss the newspaper 
until luncheon ; the long afternoon tramp and talk 
would end just in time to prepare for dinner, and 
after dinner more smoking and argument until the 
wee hours of the next day. What a triumphant 
test of friendship and fluency ! 

Much of the ability of Fawcett to entertain — 
and be entertained — from morning until past mid- 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN 91 

night was the result of his talent for accepting 
the small and trivial things of life as legitimate 
pabulum for talk. He would begin a morning's 
conversation with, * What did you have for break- 
fast to-day ? ' 

He had a surprising avidity for anecdotes, and Anecdotage. 
loved to hear certain lengthy ones repeated 
numberless times. He would listen, his attention 
glued to these worn tales, and would beg with an 
infantile eagerness to have some hoary story 
retold which he had heard over and over for a 
quarter of a century. His friend, the late Master 
of Jesus College, had a rare genius for mimicry of 
voice and gesture. Fawcett revelled in his per- 
formances ; he would be on the qui vive with the 
delight of anticipation, and ' as the well-known 
anecdote proceeded every muscle of his body 
would quiver with enjoyment and he would end 
with laughter-choked petitions for more.' 

Though Fawcett possessed a remarkably strong 
and rugged mind, his training reflected the limita- 
tions of the Cambridge curriculum of his day, in 
which the development of brain fibre by mental 
gymnastics and keen competition was the chief 
object. 

The undeniable charm which accompanies the 
type of mind which is attracted by mystery or 
the more subtle forms of the aesthetic was denied 
to Fawcett. Though his biographers may feel 
that he would have been more interesting if he had 
possessed these qualities, the frank acceptance of 



92 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

his limitations and the record of his achievement 
make a story of such heroism that it requires 
nothing more than what legitimately belongs to it. 
The short-sighted put him down as a Philistine, 
an epithet well described as that name which a 
prig bestows on the rest of the species ; but between 
Fawcett and a prig there was a natural lack of 
harmony. He appreciated good work wherever 
he found it. The novels of George Eliot, the 
Brontes, or Jane Austen were a great dehght to 
him. Esmond and Vanity Fair were read to him 
several times over, and he would ask for certain 
sonorous passages from Milton or Burke. 
The British In 1860 he visitcd Oxford, where the British 

M^eeting!°" Association was holding its meeting. He read a 
paper in which he had the hardihood to attack the 
caustic Whewell, assailing his preface to the works 
of Richard Jones. A large meeting gathered to 
witness the encounter. * Fawcett had learned by 
heart a sentence from Whe well's preface. Whewell 
replied and repudiated the phrases quoted. 
Fawcett slowly and accurately repeated the words, 
which Whewell again disavowed. Then Fawcett 
called to his secretary to produce the volume in 
which the unlucky sentence had been marked. 
The Chairman read it out, when Fawcett 's quota- 
tion appeared to be perfectly correct. He thus 
gained an apparently conclusive triumph.' * There 
were not a half-dozen people in the room,' Fawcett 
observed afterwards, ' who would have understood 
if I had got the best of the argument as to the 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN 93 

inductive method ; but they all heard the passage 
repeated distinctly three times.' Though the 
younger man had unquestionably routed this 
senior, Whewell took his defeat magnanimously, 
and was from that time on excellent terms with his 
conqueror. 



CHAPTER X 

THE YOUNG ECONOMIST 

Championing Darwin — Darwin at Downe — Salisbury 
Gossip — Meeting Mill — Fawcett for Lincoln and the 
Union — John Bright's Dog — Chair of Political Economy. 

Championing In consequence of that Oxford meeting Fawcett 
Darwm. entered another arena. Bishop Wilberforce, repre- 

senting the attitude of many not narrow-minded 
men, took that occasion to attack Darwin's recently 
pubHshed Origin of Species. Fawcett, indignant 
at the theological onslaught on the new theories, 
published an article in Macmillan's Magazine in 
which he valiantly took up the gauntlet for 
Darwin. 

Now, when evolution has become so much a 
part of our accepted and automatic thought, when 
we realise that science can in no way disprove 
religion, but if anything recommends it on a 
scientific basis, making the wonder of creation 
more real, it seems quaint to remember and diffi- 
cult to appreciate that in Fawcett 's day the great 
evolutionist was hated as an iconoclast whose 
teachings would undermine religion, that Darwin 
was actually anathema to the orthodox and the 
pious minded. 



THE YOUNG ECONOMIST 95 

Fawcett writes with his usual clearness, stating 
the true and logical position of Darwin's theory ; 
distinguishing carefully between a fruitful hypo- 
thesis and a scientific demonstration ; exhibiting 
the general nature of the argument and the geo- 
logical difficulty with great clearness, and taking 
some pains to prove that religion is in no danger 
from Darwinism. In any case, he says, ' life must 
have been originally introduced by an act of 
creative will.' He restated these arguments at 
the next year's meeting of the British Association 
in Manchester. Although this controversy for 
his part went little further, it led to some corre- 
spondence with Darwin, from whose letters it is of 
interest to quote : 

My dear Mr. Fawcett, — I wondered who had so A Letter from 
kindly sent me the newspapers, which I was very glad 
to see ; and now I have to thank you sincerely for 
allowing me to see your MS. It seems to me very 
good and sound ; though I am certainly not an im- 
partial judge. You will have done good service in 
calling the attention of scientific men to means and 
laws of philosophising. As far as I could judge by the 
papers your opponents were unworthy of you. How 
miserably A. talked of my reputation, as if that had 
anything to do with it. . . . How profoundly ignorant 
B. [who had said that Darwin should have published 
facts alone] must be of the very soul of observation ! 
About thirty years ago there was much talk that 
geologists ought only to observe and not theorise ; and 
I well remember some one saying that at this rate a 



96 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

man might as well go into a gravel-pit and count the 
pebbles and describe the colours. How odd it is 
that any one should not see that all observation 
must be for or against some view if it is to be of any 
service ! 

I have returned only lately from a two months' 
visit to Torquay, which did my health at the time 
good ; but I am one of those miserable creatures who 
are never comfortable for twenty-four hours ; and it is 
clear to me that I ought to be exterminated. I have 
been rather idle of late, or, speaking more strictly, 
working at some miscellaneous papers, which, however, 
have some direct bearing on the subject of species ; yet 
I feel guilty at having neglected my larger book. 
But, to me, observing is much better sport than writ- 
ing. I fear that I shall have wearied you with this 
long note. 

Pray believe that I feel sincerely grateful that you 
have taken up the cudgels in defence of the line of 
argument in the Origin ; you will have benefited the 
subject. 

Many are so fearful of speaking out. A German 
naturalist came here the other day, and he tells me 
that there are many in Germany on our side ; but that 
all seem fearful of speaking out, and waiting for some 
one to speak, and then many will follow. The Natural- 
ists seem as timid as young ladies should be, about 
their scientific reputation. There is much discussion 
on the subject on the Continent, even in quiet Holland, 
and I had a pamphlet from Moscow the other day by a 
man who sticks up famously for the imperfection of 
the ' Geological Record ' but complains that I have sadly 



THE YOUNG ECONOMIST 97 

understated the variability of the old fossilised animals ! 
But I must not run on. With sincere thanks and 
respect, pray believe me, yours very sincerely, 

Charles Darwin. 

Fawcett was a great admirer of Darwin, and the Going to 
famous scientist had a whole-hearted admiration do^".^^ 
for him, and thought most highly of his work on 
political economy. While Fawcett was staying 
with Lord Avebury they started on the tree-shaded 
lane that leads uphill to Downe, where Darwin 
lived, but Fawcett sped much too fast for his host, 
who had taken his arm. The blind man said, ' I 
don't need you to lead me ; if you just keep close 
enough to me to prevent my going into the hedges, 
I am all right ! ' * But I don't do it to guide you,' 
replied Lord Avebury, ' I do it to help myself, you 
walk so quickly.' Fawcett was hugely amused, 
and the blind man continuing thus to lead the 
sighted, they arrived at Darwin's, where they had 
a very merry time. 

It was a great relaxation and joy for Fawcett At Salisbury. 
when he was able to spend a few days with his be- 
loved family at Salisbury. He often took his work 
with him, and was forced at times to deny himself 
to visitors. One morning when he was at work 
an old lady called who had been his sister's school- 
mistress. When, at luncheon, he heard that she 
had been there, and had asked for him, but that 
they had refused to interrupt him, he exclaimed, 
* Oh, why didn't you call me for a friend ? ' 

G 



98 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

Although he knew the old lady but slightly, and 
she had no claims on him, he was not happy until 
he had called on her that same afternoon and told 
her how sorry he was not to have seen her. 

It is refreshing to find that he was devoted to 
gossip, and in the home circle at Salisbury he would 
often ask Mrs. Fawcett pleadingly, ' Mother, 
can't you go out to hook a little news for me ? ' 
and the mother would sally forth in search of the 
latest village excitement. She had a talent, 
perhaps inherited by the son, of, to state it con- 
servatively, making the very best of any anecdote ; 
and when she returned to the picturesque stone 
cottage in the close, where she found her long son 
toasting himself before the fire in pleasant anticipa- 
tion of a good dish of fresh gossip, great was their 
mutual satisfaction. Urged by him ' to tell it 
all without interruptions,' she would relate what 
she had absorbed with her neighbour's tea. She 
knew well how to give the flowery rendering that 
deHghted her son. As the story increased in pic- 
turesqueness and interest, Fawcett, who had been 
bending forward, his lips slightly parted in anticipa- 
tion of coming smiles, would rock back and forth 
with sheer glee. As the narrator skilfully made 
The Joy of each poiut he would shout joyously, 'Bravo, 
^°'''P' mother ! Bravo ! go it, mother ! ' He would 

never let any one else retail the village talk. She 
gave it so much more point. 

He could also ' hook news ' for himself, and had 
a favourite tale culled from a Salisbury gossip. 



THE YOUNG ECONOMIST 99 

,An old dairyman who was a great friend of his 
announced one day that they had ' a new, beautiful 
clergyman at Harnham.' * What kind ? ' asked 
Fawcett. ' Oh, fine — he goes so terrible high and 
so terrible low ! ' 

Though he retained his childlike curiosity, it is 
notable that he was absolutely free from ill-nature, 
and one of his intimates states that he never heard 
Fawcett say an ill-natured thing or intentionally 
spread a possibly mischievous rumour. Though 
he had a splendid contempt for certain weaknesses, 
he was always discreet, and tried his best to 
promote kindly feeling. His love of talk was so 
infective that it stimulated a flow in those who 
without him would have been reticent or silent. 

In Cambridge he used to be teased about his 
total lack of any embarrassment or shyness, but 
he would answer these sallies with, ' If you could 
ever see me meeting Mill, you would see me 
awkward enough ! ' The meeting took place, but Meeting Mill. 
not in the presence of these Cambridge cronies ; 
and what happened was never known, as Fawcett 
kept this sacred mystery to himself. 

In the letter, already mentioned, written to Mill 
in 1859, he says that he is * personally a stranger 
to you,' and then alludes to * the very kind 
sympathy you have expressed to me,' and con- 
tinues : 



For the last three years your books have been the Correspond- 
chief education of my mind ; I consequently have mjh. 



100 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

entertained towards you such a sense of gratitude as 
I can only hope at all adequately to repay by doing 
what lies in my power to propagate the \"aluable truths 
contained in every page of your writing. 

He certainly was a deeply attached pupil. 
He writes later : 

Pray accept my most sincere thanks for your letter ; 
I cannot tell you how much I value your words of kind 
encouragement. Often when I reflect on my affliction, 
I feel that it is rash on my part to attempt anything 
like a career of public usefulness ; and again and 
again, I am sure, my heart would fail me if it was not 
stimulated by your thoughts and teachings. I can 
therefore assure you that your kind words will remove 
many an obstacle to my course. 

This allusion to his blindness and to the depress- 
ing effect that it had in making him doubt at times 
the practicability of his having a ' career of public 
usefulness ' is as unusual for him as it is touching. 

Even his iron will could not exclude the quiet 
moments when his disaster weighed on him with the 
force of its full burden, and he could not at all 
times banish a wistful expression which his friends 
grew to recognise when his face was not animated 
by talk or the stimulus of debate. It is even 
reproduced in some of the photographs, which 
show on his features the calm acceptance of a 
great tragedy. 

Mill had not long lost the wife who had so 
radiantly coloured an otherwise grey existence, 



THE YOUNG ECONOMIST loi 

and doubtless the cordial admiration and the open- 
hearted friendship of the younger economist was 
very pleasant to him. 

The pupil and master became great friends. 
Fawcett appreciated the gentle charm of the 
singular delicacy of feeling which he found under 
Mill's austere and aloof nature. At the unveiling 
in 1878 of Mill's statue, Fawcett said that Mill 
possessed qualities supposed to be the peculiar 
privileges of women, a gentleness and tenderness 
such as no woman could exceed. He revered his 
teacher so profoundly that it was sometimes 
thought that he was less generous in listening to 
the side of their common opponents. 

In later years Professor Sidgwick, who ventured 
to find some flaws in the crystal, met with scant 
sympathy from Fawcett. Walking with a friend 
in Cambridge, Fawcett 's attention was called to 
the nearness of Professor Sidgwick, apparently 
deep in conversation. ' Oh yes,' said he, * there 
goes Sidgwick, carping on Mill.' 

While Fawcett was busying himself with the American 
theory of economics in the quiet courts of 
Cambridge, its practice had given rise to a great 
conflagration in the Western Continent. The 
American Civil War raised many problems outside 
the country where it raged. England was con- 
sidering where her sympathies lay. The Palmer- 
stonian instinct to support a small state revolting 
against the possibly arbitrary insistence of a greater 
power gave one impulse in favour of the South ; 



Civil War. 



102 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



Lancashire 
Work People 
and Freedom, 



Favvcett for 
Lincoln and 
the Union. 



the grudging desire to see a large country split up 
gave another in the same direction. These were 
the feelings of the aristocracy and the press. But 
the Radicals and the common people had quite 
other thoughts. To them the great country in the 
West was the home and hope of freedom, and that 
it should strive to wipe itself free of the stain of 
slavery won the full sympathy of the freedom- 
loving people in the mother country. The working 
people of Lancashire stood by and starved that 
they might help America to be free. 

In 1863 Leslie Stephen crossed the Atlantic. 
His letters to his mother were at his request all 
forwarded to Fawcett, who helped his friend by 
getting him letters of introduction. 

Stephen writes, ' The letter which Fawcett 
got me from Bright to Seward proved very useful. 
It brought Seward down completely. Bright 's 
name is (as Fawcett may tell him) a complete tower 
of strength in these parts. They all talked of him 
with extraordinary admiration.' And again, * I 
also hear that old fox, Fawcett, with his customary 
low cunning, speaks complimentarily of my letters 
and suggests my writing a book on America.' 

Fawcett from the first was a strong Federalist, 
and both in public and in private spoke for the 
North. At Cambridge he was one of a small 
minority, and his rooms were the scene of many 
a battle for Lincoln and the Union. 

We have already commented on the curious 
resemblance, both physical and mental, between the 




HENKV i'AVVCKTT AT CAMUKIDGK, 1603 
From a contemporary painting in Trinity Hall 

The other figures from left to right are Fawcett's guide. Professor Geldart 
and Leslie Stephen 



THE YOUNG ECONOMIST 103 

American and the Englishman. If we turn to the 
Trinity Hall picture of Fawcett, Leslie Stephen, 
and others, the blind man's lofty top hat made in 
England suggests the similar hideous head-gear 
which was worn by the American President at his 
inauguration, and which was humbly held by 
his conquered adversary when the oath of office 
was taken by the victor. Fawcett is like Lincoln 
in his great wiry, lank length of six feet three inches 
or against the American six feet four inches ; in 
their athletic force and power, as youths, they both 
threw their adversaries in wrestling bouts ; their 
rusticity, simplicity, and felicity in ready speech ; 
their unfailing love of fun and affection for small 
boys, animals, and all weak things in need of help. 
In their slight characteristics and in their great 
traits they had much in common ; their sympathy, 
honesty, phenomenal patience and courage. They 
started on their careers with similar equipments — 
their great hearts and tremendous energies. They 
both, through vast suffering, found the road to a 
deep happiness, and with all their love and power 
they served their countries. 

Fawcett's friendship for Bright has been referred 
to. It may not be out of place to repeat a favourite 
story Fawcett used to tell against himself of a 
fishing exploit in Bright's company. They had Hooking 
had no luck, and Bright was walking ahead along property^ 
the river bank when Fawcett called out exultantly, 
' Oh, Bright, I 've got a big one ! ' He pulled hard. 
Bright turned round and exclaimed, ' Yes, indeed. 



104 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

you have caught your hook in the long hair of 
my dog/ and went to the rescue of the mystified 
colhe, Avho was trying to extricate himself from 
Fawcett's vigorous fishing-line. 
Friendship Largely at the instigation of his friend and future 

miiian, publisher, Macmillan, Fawcett began to write his 

first book on poHtical economy in 1861. Alexander 
Macmillan was a great friend of Fawcett and of his 
circle. He often came to Fawcett's rooms to ask 
him and to persuade him to contribute some articles 
to the early numbers of Macmillan' s Magazine. 

It is possible that these two were drawn to each 
other by their great differences — Macmillan to 
Fawcett's strong, dogged common sense, and 
Fawcett to that esoteric vein in his friend's 
mentality. The following incident brings out 
strongly this contrast. Macmillan was popular 
with the graduates, who often spent interesting 
evenings at his house. One day he in turn was 
their guest in the Common Room. He held the 
floor in an extremely metaphysical conversation. 
Fawcett, who cared little for such talk and always 
said that philosophy ran off him like water off 
a duck's back, showed scant interest in the 
proceedings. Macmillan became more and more 
introspective and transcendental, and finally ex- 
claimed, * I often wonder, Fawcett, what I am 
here for,' to which Fawcett cheerfullj^ replied, ' O 
Macmillan, we all know what you are here for — 
to bring out another edition of Hamblin Smith's 
Arithmetic' 



THE YOUNG ECONOMIST 105 

Fawcett's Manual of Political Economy appeared Mammiof 
early In 1863, when he was in his thirtieth year. Eclnomy. 
He regarded his book merely as an introduction to 
Mill's larger work, which he said ' will be remem- 
bered as one of the most enduring productions 
of the nineteenth century.' The manual was very 
well received, and opened the way for Fawcett to 
succeed the then Professor of Political Economy, 
Professor Pryne, who was in failing health. On 
the death of this gentleman the choice for a suc- 
cessor lay among four candidates. The great 
ability of one of these, then Mr. Leonard H. 
Courtney, now Lord Courtney, was already recog- 
nised. As, however, residents were preferred to 
strangers, the real contest was reduced to the two 
local candidates, Fawcett and Mayor. Fawcett's 
book was his chief asset in the struggle, and it, 
together with his discussion at the London Poli- 
tical Economy Club, of which he was a member. Candidate for 
constituted the chief claims urged by his many po'iitjcai"^ ° 
influential friends throughout the country. They Economy. 
wrote the usual laudatory letters, but with perhaps 
more than the usual heartiness. Nevertheless, his 
blindness seemed a probable barrier to his ambition. 
Even one of his dearest friends refused to uphold 
his claims, feeling that a blind man could not 
properly fill the post, and there was much sincere 
doubt whether a man who could not see could keep 
order in his lecture -room. In addition to this, 
Fawcett's frank Radicalism counted against him ; 
he had already, as we shall see in a later chapter, 



io6 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

twice been a candidate for Parliament in the 
Liberal interest, the last time in Cambridge 
itself. 

Such was the reputation for extreme opinions 
Fawcett and Stephen had given by their con- 
nection with Trinity Hall, that a certain country 
squire of ancient lineage and Conservative prin- 
ciples hesitated whether he dared send his son to 
the college where his ancestors had gained their 
learning. He decided to visit Cambridge, and 
there interviewed Stephen and Fawcett. He told 
them with unfeigned horror of the serious charges 
of Radicalism against the college that made him 
afraid to entrust his son to its keeping. The grave 
fellows compared notes solemnly before answering 
the father, then Fawcett reassured him, saying 
that the rumours which he had heard had been 
much exaggerated, and though at one time * some 
of us had been rather infected with extreme 
opinions, now we have greatly moderated our 
views, and shall be content simply with the Dis- 
I establishment of the Church and the abolition 
of the Throne.' The immediate flight of the 
horrified squire can be imagined. 

Undismayed, however, Fawcett and his friends 
went to their electioneering with an astuteness and 
enthusiasm that vanquished all opposition, and 
Elected. on 28th November 1863 Fawcett was elected to 

the professorial chair. A jubilant letter was 
despatched by him to his mother the day after 
the election on 28th November 1863 : 



THE YOUNG ECONOMIST 107 

My dear Mother, — I hope you duly received the 
telegram. The victory yesterday was a wonderful 
triumph. I don't think an election has produced so 
much excitement in Cambridge for years. At last 
excitement was greatly increased by its being made 
quite a church and political question. All the Masters 
opposed me with two exceptions, but I was strongly 
supported by a great majority of the most distinguished 
resident Fellows. My victory was a great surprise to 
the University. I thought on the whole that I should 
win, but I expected a much smaller majority. Clarke 
however was very confident. He managed the election 
splendidly for me, and curiously predicted that I should 
poll exactly ninety votes, and made a bet with Stephen 
that I should beat Mayor by ten to twelve. We are 
going to publish a list of the votes, which I shall send 
to you. My great strength after all was in Trinity, 
This says much for the independence of the College, as 
the Master was one of my strongest opponents. . . , 

All my friends in town regard it as a great political 
triumph. The Forsters [who had supported him in the 
election at Cambridge] were in a wonderful state of 
delight, and I have been overwhelmed with congratula- 
tions. I must now conclude, as I have many more 
letters to write. Give my kindest love to Maria, and 
believe me to be, dear Mother, ever yours affection- 
ately, Henry Fawcett. 



THE PROFESSOR 
OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 



' A man may see how this world goes with no eyes.' 

Shakespeare. 

' He that hath Ught within his own dim breast 
May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day.' 

Milton. 



CHAPTER XI 

A PROGRAMME OF HELPFULNESS 

The Triumph over Bhndness — The Professor's Audience 
— Free Trade and Protection — The Luxury of Light — The 
Malady of Poverty. 

His election to a professorial chair meant much The Triumph 
to Fawcett and helped greatly to carry him success- ness. 
fully forward in the career which he had mapped 
out for himself. It proved ,two points of much 
significance in his life as a blind man : first, that 
his colleagues and the elder men in authority at 
Cambridge thought that he had the intellectual 
training and qualifications to develop the honour- 
able post to which he was elected ; and secondly, 
that they did not feel that his bhndness would 
hinder his making the most of his knowledge or 
prevent his students reaping good results from his 
lectures. Perhaps no less important was the added 
buoyancy and confidence given to Fawcett by a 
knowledge of his ability to control and lead men, 
even if they were only his pupils at Cambridge. 
This was a step, even if a very small one, on his 
path towards his election to Parliament. From 
that point of vantage he felt that he could 
ultimately lead the hosts of the ignorant and 



112 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

oppressed and force great issues for the national 
welfare. 

The material advantages following his victory 
were also important : his fellowship yielded from 
;^250 to ;^300 a year, which, with his professorship 
worth ;^300 a year, was sufficient for his needs. He 
rejoiced that his professorship compelled him to be 
at Cambridge for eighteen weeks each year, and 
for the rest of his life he continued to give his 
annual course of lectures. 

The attitude taken towards the duties of a 
professor at Cambridge at that time seems to us 
now almost comic and Gilbertian. It was not 
expected that the professor should have a vol- 
untary attendance of enthusiastic pupils at his 
lectures. When it was considered advisable for 
him to have a larger audience, the lecture-rooms 
were filled by forcing the * poll ' men, that is the 
undergraduates taking the Ordinary Degree, to 
attend a certain number of lectures ; and whilst 
this arrangement remained in force Fawcett had 
a large share of these coerced auditors. In 1876 
the regulation was done away with, and his lectures 
were nearly deserted, though in his later years he 
had again a respectable audience. 
The A friend who saw Fawcett lecturing at Cambridge 

after the repeal of compulsory attendance says 
that the impression made upon him was grotesque. 
On entering the lecture-room, which was practically 
deserted, one saw the huge blind man holding forth 
with his ringijig voice to space. Fawcett, in answer 



Professor's 
Audience 



A PROGRAMME OF HELPFULNESS 113 

to condolences on this weird phenomenon, repHed, 
with a merry laugh, that it was quite all right and 
he was used to it. 

Fawcett was practically the only professor who 
objected to the withdrawal of compulsion ; he 
said that he had been convinced by experience that 
his hearers profited more than he had anticipated. 
Examinations showed that they had really acquired 
useful knowledge. He did not share the objections 
of his colleagues, who felt that they had to lecture 
above the capacities of their enforced audiences. 
He should not, he said, alter in any case the 
character of his own lectures. There is something 
subHme and adamantine in this attitude ; with his 
two feet planted firmly, the blind man proposed 
not for a moment to lessen the height of his 
intellectual stature, but by sheer force and deter- 
mination, derrick-hke, to hoist even the lowest 
members of his audience up to his own level. The 
impracticability of this point of view is obvious, 
but it is intensely Fawcettian. He felt that the 
great truths embodied in political economy were so 
simple and vital that he could graft them painlessly 
and with good results on the most unfertile mind. 

He did not confine himself to elucidating the 
essential elements of his science only, nor was he 
content to reiterate what he had said to former 
audiences. He loved political economy as a living 
and helpful science. His lectures were always The Science 
fresh, earnest, and illustrated by the bearing of the l^^^.^ ^ " " 
subject on history or current political events. He 

H 



114 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

did not care to teach subtleties, but to drill his 
pupils in a science which he firmly believed would 
help them to deal intelligently and efficiently with 
the great problems of inequality, poverty, ignor- 
ance, and misery which were calling in vain to high 
Heaven to be solved. 

Fawcett's critics among the younger men often 
felt that he was too conservative. He idealised 
Mill, and his friends maintained that he had read 
no book except Mill's Political Economy ; it was 
true that he had read no book so exhaustively. 
He urged his hearers at one of his lectures to study 
some good book until they were prepared to give 
the substance and fully to analyse the argument of 
every chapter, and then having acted conscientiously 
on his advice himself, naively suggested Mill's 
Political Economy as excellent for this purpose. 

He proved the teachings of Ricardo and Mill by 
what he had learned from the conditions of the 
country folk about Salisbury and Cambridge. He 
Homely was wout to base his arguments on some homely. 

Economy. definite fact as illustration for his plain, home-made 
reasoning ; for instance, he objected to a certain 
increased tax because it meant that every old 
woman in England would have a lump of sugar the 
less in her tea. That was the concrete thing on 
which he based his policy ; and surely it is not one 
to be overlooked by a true statesman. He supple- 
mented his knowledge by studying inexhaustibly 
the political, financial and economic movements of 
his time, and dehghted in spending a quiet Sunday 



tion. 



A PROGRAMME OF HELPFULNESS 115 

reading through all the newspapers he could col- 
lect. His appetite for them was insatiable, and 
he felt that he had been defrauded if his friends, 
when reading the Parliamentary debates, skipped 
any of even ' the blow off,' as they called the 
peroration. 

He enriched his mind less by a pre-occupation 
with the abstract theory of Political Economy 
than by keeping constantly in touch with the affairs 
which were in actual course of transaction. 

He was keenly interested in all those questions 
where political economy borders on finance. His 
book, Free Trade and Protection, published fifteen Free Trade 
years after his first, assailed the tariff fetish dear ^^^^ ^'''^'^'^^ 
to his generation. Terse and masterly, his publica- 
tion became popular, and was regarded by many of 
the critics of his day as conclusive. In it he limited 
the problem to what he deemed its practical view- 
point. To him this was purely a commercial one, 
a question of profit and loss. Was protection pro- 
fitable or not ? He found that, sporadic evidence 
at times to the contrary, protection was not a 
paying business, and that it would only be main- 
tained in the long run by a loss to the community, 
and therefore he considered it an obstruction in the 
way of progress, capital, and the general weal. 

He was impressed by the fact that the evil of the 
day was the hopeless poverty of the mass of the 
people. He felt that the only way to help them 
was to understand the principles that govern * the 
conditions and consequences of money making 



Ii6 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



The Luxury 
of Light. 



Malady of 
Poverty. 



and money spending,' and so discover how best to 
make it possible for them to earn more money, 
that is, to have more power in exchange. He felt 
that men should be less content with their lot, and 
that schools and savings banks to replace the 
pubHc-house would be great factors for regenera- 
tion. He used to tell the following anecdote, which 
touched his friend Mill deeply. Fawcett knew a 
Wiltshire man who was in the habit of going to 
bed at dusk. The man explained that this was 
his custom because he could not afford a candle, 
and added that, even if he could, he could not read, 
so why should he have the expense or luxury of 
light ? How was it possible to change this labourer's 
horizon, to lift him beyond the degrading pressure 
of sordid poverty, and to fill him with ambition, 
when he had to support his wife and himself 
on nine shillings a week ? * Let us endeavour,' 
Fawcett says, ' to understand the true causes of 
poverty. That is the vital problem.' 

As a Professor of Political Economy he tries, 
like a careful doctor, painstakingly to study and 
understand the symptoms of the malady of poverty 
and misery, refusing to accept any superficial 
diagnosis. He wants to discover the cause of 
the disturbance which, like a malignant tumour, 
vitiates the whole social system. While coping 
with these problems he kept his mind cool, critical, 
and impersonal, refusing all quack remedies, and 
seized every detail that helped him to his goal. 
In ail simplicity he once asked Leslie Stephen why 



A PROGRAMME OF HELPFULNESS 117 

Carlyle called political economy the ' dismal 
Science ' — not a difficult question for the average 
man ! But Fawcett loved budgets and balance- 
sheets ; they brought to his mind vivid, concrete 
pictures that could never be dull, and he studied 
them industriously ; industriously enough to realise 
thoroughly the fallibility of figures and the old 
truth so often quoted (can the reader bear it 
again ?) that there are three kinds of lies, * Lies, 
Damned Lies, and Statistics.' Though his respect 
for his forerunners was great, his beliefs were fear- 
lessly his own. 

His warm personal relations with country 
labourers, many of whom he called his intimate 
friends, never lessened. Once, after a day's fish- 
ing at Salisbury with Wright, he had some beer 
with a farmer, who told him that the labourers' 
wages were to be lowered after the harvest. 
Fawcett, after vainly protesting, refused more beer 
and walked home. On his way he met one of his 
labouring friends, who accounted for his best 
clothes by saying that he was going to a harvest- 
home celebration at the church. Fawcett fell 
into a long reverie, and at last asked Wright how 
he would like to give thanks for a bountiful harvest 
when his wages were to be docked of a shilling a 
week. 

Such facts touched him deeply and set him 
pondering and writing on how best they could 
be changed. Co-operation seemed to him to be Co-operation. 
the cure for these ills ; he felt that it would bind 



ii8 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

together the interests of the capitalists and the 
working men, and would ultimately do away with 
the friction between them. An article he published 
on this subject attracted the notice of George 
Eliot, and his proposals were put into practice 
at a colliery near Leeds. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE SCHOOLS OF THE POOR 

Need of Non-Sectarian Education — Charity and Pauper- 
ism — Friendship with Working Men — The Voice that 
linked. 

But co-operation without intelligence and educa- Need of Non- 
tion in all classes was impossible. Fawcett felt EducaUon. 
keenly the need of non-sectarian national educa- 
tion, especially for the rural population. Schools 
would enlighten the workman so that he could learn 
how to make his work more profitable to himself 
and others, and how to make the best of his free 
hours, and so work out his independence. 

To the argument that compulsory school attend- 
ance, when the schooling was not gratuitous, would 
impose additional burdens upon the poor, he re- 
plied that the wages of labourers were determined 
not by open competition, but by what was 
absolutely necessary to keep soul and body to- 
gether. The payment for schools would therefore 
not come out of their pockets, but be made up in 
their wages. The employer would be reimbursed 
either by a reduction of his rent or, it might be 
confidently hoped, by the increased efficiency of 
labour. A man considers himself repaid for keep- 
ing his horses in good condition, whilst he leaves his 



120 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

labourers In a state of semi-starvation. Fawcett 
held that whatever would give and stimulate the 
best in men was good, but he abhorred all that 
tended to restrict the independence and freedom of 
action of the poor. This latter principle made him 
a strong opponent of any form of State regulation 
of the lives and labour of the adult poor. It 
seemed to him that charity unsafeguarded which 
Charity and inevitably increases pauperism. He realised that 
auperism. tyranny always tries to justify itself ; his interest 
in America made him familiar with the doctrine 
that slavery is best for the slave. ' Interference 
may be tyranny in disguise even when it is really 
based on the best motives.' He wrote sternly 
against State socialism and the nationalisation of 
the land. These plans, he said, regarded the State 
as a kind of supernatural milch cow, a body capable 
of making something out of nothing, of directly 
commanding supplies of manna from the heavens 
and water from the rocks ; whereas, in point of 
fact, these were simply schemes for taking money 
from the prudent and handing it over to the idle. 
In his search for practical solutions to these 
questions he put himself in close touch with the 
individual workman and his conditions, as well 
as with Trade Union officials. When at Bradford, 
during a strike against the introduction of new 
labour-saving machinery, the blind man went fear- 
lessly among the excited workmen and cautioned 
the men against driving away their trade by their 
methods. He strongly denounced violence, and 



THE SCHOOLS OF THE POOR 121 

arguing calmly to these under- fed, discontented 
men, he compelled their interest ; they listened, 
and were largely convinced by his logic and good- 
will. Many working men regarded him as their 
hero and champion. 

Recently a London locksmith told the writer 
that he was a member of the Henry Fawcett Club 
for Workmen, and that one of their proudest 
memories was that Fawcett had at one time 
addressed the club and taught it great principles 
of life and work. 

The working men and women appreciated what Friendships 
his friendship meant, and felt that there was no Jn.l^^n"^^" 
one who could better speak for them. 

George Odger, a shoemaker, the first workman odger. 
to stand for Parliament, was a great friend of Faw- 
cett's. He used to tell this tale of his candidature. 
It was before the ballot, and it was the custom to 
publish the state of the poll from time to time 
throughout the day. There were two Conserva- 
tives and two Liberals standing for two seats, and 
Odger standing as an independent working-class 
candidate. As the day went on it became clear 
that one of the Liberals would be returned, but that 
if the second Liberal and Odger held on a Con- 
servative would win the second seat. Fawcett and 
some other Liberal politicians went more than once 
to the Liberal Whip's headquarters, and implored 
him as the chief of the Liberal party organisation 
to allow the second Liberal candidate to withdraw 
from the contest, and thus both save a seat for 



122 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

the Liberal party and allow a workman to get 
in. Out of dislike to a working-class candidate, 
the party leader refused. The result was that 
both Odger and the second Liberal were defeated 
and a Conservative got in ; and also a lasting bitter- 
ness on the part of Odger and his sympathisers 
towards the wire-pullers of the Liberal party, and 
apparently an enduring affection for Fawcett. At 
one of his political meetings, years after, Odger 
appeared to make a speech in defence of his friend, 
about whom he said, that if he or any other working- 
class leader went to see the professor in the House 
of Commons or elsewhere to ask him for his support 
for some Bill or proposal in which they were 
interested, Fawcett would not keep them standing 
in the lobby as some members would, but would 
receive them in the most friendly and unassuming 
Frank Fair- manner. If he didn't agree with their proposal 
he would tell them so in the clearest and most direct 
terms, so that they always knew where they stood 
with him ; if he agreed with them and thought 
them right he would back them through thick and 
thin, and if he thought their views unsound he 
would with equal candour tell them so and oppose 
them. 

Odger had shown the same liking for plain speak- 
ing when he was present at the extraordinary 
meeting held during Mill's election for West- 
minster. In an essay in which he compared the 
working classes in different countries. Mill had said 
that in England the working classes were generally 



ness 



THE SCHOOLS OF THE POOR 123 

liars. At this meeting Mill was publicly asked if 
he had made the statement. Mill replied, * I did.' 
His courage was received with a great burst of 
applause, and Odger, who spoke next, said that the 
working classes wanted friends not flatterers, and 
were truly obliged to any one who could treat them 
so straightforwardly. 

When, years later, Odger lay dying in the slums Friendship 
of St. Giles, Fawcett went to his bedside, giving ''^^ Death, 
what comfort he could, and an unfailing sympathy. 
When the old man died, Fawcett went to his funeral 
in Brompton Cemetery, His secretary, who ac- 
companied him, gives this description, it was * a 
long walk in a procession of many thousands, with 
trade bands playing funeral marches, alternating 
with the Marseillaise, and the banners of working- 
class organisations flying. We joined the pro- 
cession in Knightsbridge and walked all the way 
to Brompton, and the throng at the cemetery was 
immense. Mr. Fawcett and I were dragged 
through the crowd to the grave, where the leader 
who had arranged the procession insisted on his 
making a short speech in eulogy of their dead 
comrade.' 

A characteristic glimpse of Fawcett and his 
surroundings at this time is given to us by one of 
his sympathisers, who says : 

'The first time I saw Mr. Fawcett was at a 
meeting summoned, as I understood, by himself, 
for the purpose of hearing an address from him 
on some subject connected with political economy 



124 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

and the interests of the working class. I was in- 
troduced to Mr. Fawcett after the lecture. Neither 
he nor anybody else had ever heard of my name at 
that time, but he was as frank and friendly as if we 
had met before and had known each other. He told 
me he was determined to try for a seat in the House 
of Commons, and he added cheerily, ** I know I 
shall get a seat there some time." 

' I did not meet him again for more than a year, 
it may have been two years, after. I happened to 
sit next to him at a small meeting of politicians 
and philanthropists. Mr. Mill was at the same 
meeting. We had the Reform question to interest 
us, the question between the Northern and Southern 
States of America, the question of legislation affect- 
ing the position of working men, the Irish question. 
Radicalism was then at once curiously robust 
and " viewy," a combination of qualities which 
politicians of a more recent birth find it perhaps 
a little difficult to understand. Mr. Mill belonged 
to some of our fraternities. Mr. Herbert Spencer 
was at one of them, at least. Mr. Huxley rather 
later came into one or two. 
The Voice * Somc Speaker got up who spoke well, and whom 

I did not know, and I asked Mr. Fawcett who 
it was. He told me promptly, and then to my 
surprise addressed me by name, and reminded 
me of the fact that we had talked together after 
his speech in St. Martin's Hall. His power of 
recognising men by the sound of their voices was 
something wonderful. Seventeen or eighteen years 



that linked. 



THE SCHOOLS OF THE POOR 125 

afterwards, I happened to sit two rows of benches 
behind him in the House of Commons. The House 
was nearly empty. Fawcett had spoken a few 
words on some subject of interest in India. When 
he sat down I uttered one quiet " Hear, hear." In 
a moment he turned towards me, and addressing 
me by my name, asked me whether I had seen a 
friend of his, the late Sir David Wedderburn, any- 
where in the House that evening.' 

However great his absorption in poHtical affairs, 
Fawcett never forgot to satisfy his craving for fresh 
air and exercise. His sanity of outlook on serious TheCaiiof 
things was largely due to his power of throwing 
them aside to enjoy a long tramp, a ride or a wintry 
skate. His nerve never failed him. One frosty 
day he walked across the frozen fens from Cam- 
bridge to Newmarket. The country is inter- 
sected with dikes and at any moment it was 
possible to plunge beyond one's depth into a half- 
frozen ditch. To Fawcett this was part of the 
fun, but his companion was far more anxious, and 
said that the Victoria Cross had been won by deeds 
requiring no greater courage and strength than this 
feat required of a blind man. Fawcett had learnt 
his lesson that for him life without courage was 
no life, and he habituated himself to hourly risks. 

In company with a seeing confederate, he 
would have made a good scout. His knowledge 
of the country, of the mysteries of the woods and 
fields, intensified as he grew older. In the Wilder- 
ness, many an Indian path-finder would have lost 



126 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

the crackling of the branches under the swift hoof 
of a distant hurrying deer, or the soft call of the 
partridge to her young which Fawcett always 
heard. The distinctive smells and sounds of the 
seasons were clearly marked for him. The swish 
of the rollicking crisp leaves dancing before the 
wind along the roadways, and the thud of the 
falling apples on the hard ground in the orchard, 
made him laugh as it brought autumn to his senses. 
Winter, with its clear-cut noises, cracklings of ice 
and snow under foot, lost none of its sternness 
because he could not see its long white robes. He 
loved the smells of spring, and seemed to feel the 
pushing and striving in the dank earth and to 
divine the fragrance soon to burst forth. Like a 
giant lizard he revelled and basked in the heat of 
the summer sun, and rejoiced in the contrast of 
the cool shadow beneath the heavy-laden trees, the 
smell of the hot grass and of fully opened fragrant 
flowers, and the sedate ' brum ' of the bourgeois 
bumble-bee. 
Increasing Though by his profcssorship attached for life to 

Cambridge, Fawcett 's interests were deep in the 
world of politics, in which he had already made his 
debut as the member of Parliament for Brighton. 
To simplify our story we will take up the history 
of his early political efforts in a new chapter. 

The new M.P. was extremely popular ; his friends 
were among the greatest men of the day — three of 
them at least, Darwin, Mill, Thackeray, gave new 
life to widely different callings. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE NEW M.P. AND THE CLUB 

Thackeray and the Reform Club — The popular M.P. — 
The Assassination of Lincoln — Marriage. 

As Fawcett was often in London, his friends were 
anxious for him to belong to a chib. He was put 
up for membership at the Reform Club, but to the 
chagrin of his friends, the committee was loath to 
admit a bUnd man. It felt that he would be help- 
less and in the way. It delegated a member to 
tell Fawcett tactfully the feeling in the matter. 
He received the news with entire good humour and 
calmness, remarking quietly that ' every club has 
a perfect right to elect, or to refuse to elect, whom- 
ever it chooses on whatever ground it pleases.' 
But the attitude of Thackeray, who was a member 
of the club, was quite different ; he felt the ruling 
was outrageous, and said so, exclaiming ' It is 
ridiculous — if Mr. Fawcett is only brought into 
the dining-room or the library every one of us there 
will forget that he is blind, and he will find his way 
about without any difficulty.' Vigorously taking 
up the cudgels, Thackeray routed all prejudice Thackeray as 
against his friend, and Fawcett was enthusiastically ^^^"^p"^"- 
elected a member of the Reform Club. He received 

127 



128 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

this news of success with the same genial calm with 
which he had before received that of failure. 

It was a great disappointment to him that 
Thackeray, whom he had asked to the Christmas 
dinner at Trinity Hall in 1863, was unable to come 
owing to illness. Lady Ritchie remembers her 
father's desire to go to Cambridge for the famous 
festivity, and his regretful shake of the head as he 
said, ' No, I must give it up.' Lady Ritchie adds, 
'We were so sorry for him, and also because he 
admired Mr. Fawcett very much.' 

Overwhelmed with invitations, he had a tre- 
mendously good time wherever he went. If he 
was dining out, he would sometimes arrive at his 
host's a little before dinner, and ask to be shown 
to the dining-room and to have the places where 
each guest was to sit pointed out to him ; he never 
forgot his lesson, so that during dinner he was able 
to speak quite naturally, turning as if he saw to 
any one at the table, addressing them by name. 
His conversation was delightful, and he had a 
marvellous faculty of putting people at their ease. 
On one occasion his hostess was absent when her 
guests arrived ; a general formality and stiffness 
pervaded the circle until Fawcett arrived and at 
once broke up the ice and substituted a genial and 
comfortable glow of friendliness. 
The popular We havc uotcd how he remembered people in- 

M P . . . 

stantly by their voices, even if many years had 
elapsed since an only hearing. To him every 
woman seemed both charming and unforgettable. 



THE NEW M.P. AND THE CLUB 129 

A friend tells how his wife, who had not seen 
Fawcett for many years, entered the drawing-room 
at a large reception. Although Fawcett was at the 
other end of the large room, he at once disentangled 
the lady's voice from the web of the general con- 
versation, and threaded his way through the crowd 
to speak with her. 

It is worth pausing a moment to think what an 
exquisite sense of hearing this story implies. What 
must the roar of a political mob have been to an 
ear of such delicacy ? 

At this time, all who saw Fawcett were not only 
drawn to him by his delightful and frank person- 
ality, but arrested by his strikingly interesting 
appearance. Like Saul, his fine head towered far 
above the people, his commanding height dominated 
any gathering, A great shock of blond hair at this 
time added picturesqueness to his strong face, and 
his vibrant voice roused all by its very earnest- 
ness ; in intimate talk he spoke rapidly, riveting 
attention by his complete sincerity. 

Though truly a mighty talker, Fawcett had the 
rare accompanying grace of absorbing himself in 
the conversation and interests of others. Further- 
more, his blindness, by quickening all his remaining 
faculties, enabled him to hear without effort every- 
, thing going on around him. 

The chatter in the brilliant drawing-rooms, the The Lme 
swish of silks, the trailing of velvets on silken 
carpets, the rustle of starch and frills on the par- 
quet floor, the perfume used by the women, the 

I 



130 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

smell of furs, candles, lamps and the warm air 
heavy with fragrant flowers, the murmur of distant 
fountains and music — everything touched the sen- 
sitive nervous organism. Transmitting quickly 
hundreds of impressions to his swift brain and 
wonderful imagination, they created for the blind 
man vividly the scenes in which he moved, and in 
which he delighted with greater keenness than the 
usual seeing person, and probably even more in- 
tensely than if he had seen them actually with his 
bodily eye. 

He must have been in a listening mood one 
evening at a reception in London, when he suddenly 
heard a girlish voice, vibrant with tense emotion, 
say, ' Oh, it would have been better if every 
crowned head in Europe had been shot, than 
Lincoln's Lincoln ! ' The voice belonged to Miss Millicent 
Garrett, a girl of eighteen, who had just heard of 
Lincoln's assassination. Fawcett, too, was deeply 
moved by this news, and asked to meet Miss 
Garrett. He found himself at once with her on a 
common ground of sympathy, not only in the loss 
of the great emancipator, but in a deep admiration 
for the lofty principles of liberty for which Lincoln 
had given his life. 

This meeting was the beginning of a rare under- 
standing between two strangely harmonious and 
independent natures, and in the autumn of 1866 
Fawcett became engaged to Miss Garrett, whom 
he married on April 23, 1867. Mrs. Fawcett was 
the daughter of Mr. Newson Garrett of Aldeburgh. 




HEXKV rAWCKTT AND MRS. FAWCETT 



THE NEW M.P. AND THE CLUB 131 

The following notice of the event is taken from the 
Suffolk Mercury of the day : 

* The commanding figure of the bridegroom, 
which towered above the surrounding gentlemen, 
bespoke him one of the tallest as well as one of the 
most distinguished of his countrymen. 

' Amongst the most interesting of the wedding 
presents were a massive repeating chronometer, 
sent by the Fellows of Cambridge University, and 
a beautiful silver inkstand, the gift of one of Mr. 
Fawcett's constituents at Brighton.' 

The marriage of Fawcett did more to help him Marriage, 
realise his ambitions and develop his intellectual 
abilities than any other event in his life. He used 
to say that he fell in love with his wife's mind, but 
from this we must not imagine that she lacked 
personal charm and a vivacious sense of humour. 
Their affection rested on a strong foundation of 
common principles and interests and of the love of 
freedom and justice. 

A vivid impression of this unique and romantic 
couple is sketched for us in the accompanying 
story told by Lord Avebury,^ 

Sir John Lubbock, as he then was, was waiting at 
the Railway Station on his way to Wiltshire, when 
his attention was called to a reserved compart- 
ment decorated gaily with flowers. On asking the 
station-master to explain this unusual phenomenon, 

^ The above was given to the writer by the late Lord Avebury at 
his home in London in 191 1; it is taken directly from the notes 
made at the time. 



132 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

he was informed that the compartment was re- 
served for Professor Fawcett and his bride, who 
were about to start on their wedding trip. 

Just then Fawcett loomed in sight, his little 
girlish bride hanging on his arm. Sir John tried 
to vanish, but Fawcett's marvellous intuition had 
already detected his presence, and the blind man 
cried out in that voice which scorned concealment : 
A Trio and * Hello, Sir John, I want you to meet my wife. We 
Trip! *"^ are going on our wedding trip ; you must come 
along ! ' 

Willy nilly. Sir John was seized by the giant and 
hustled after the bride into the beflowered com- 
partment. Much embarrassed, he protested as 
best he could, and tried to extricate himself, but 
Fawcett would not hear of it, and insisted on 
his accompanying them upon their wedding 
trip. Sir John made another heroic effort for 
flight, but just then the guard slammed the door, 
and he was forced to form a third for a part of the 
honeymoon. 

This cordiality to his friends on all occasions was 
one of Fawcett's chief characteristics. He could 
not imagine any one whom he liked being in the 
way ; and his wife's sense of fun always managed 
to make what might have been otherwise a difficult 
situation amusing and acceptable. 

For the honeymoon Fawcett had taken a small 
cottage at Alderbury. The country had been 
familiar to him when he was there as a schoolboy. 
Each day he took his bride on some new and lovely 



THE NEW M.P. AND THE CLUB 133 

drive, stopping on the way to show her the views 
which he loved and so well remembered. 

Mrs. Fawcett had been before her marriage Mrs. f 
deeply interested in the questions of social interest """ 
which absorbed Fawcett. She had his entire 
sympathy both in her independent work as a 
political economist and in her championship of 
woman suffrage. 

After their marriage, they published together a 
collection of essays and lectures. Mrs. Fawcett 's 
Political Economy for Beginners appeared shortly 
after, and quickly won its way to popularity. 
Fawcett was always eager in acknowledging his 
wife's help, and not only as his literary critic and 
editor. He valued her judgment in political 
matters more than his own, and would leave im- 
portant questions unsettled until he had discussed 
them with her. 

He gave a touching proof of his devotion and 
belief in her ability when a sudden accident 
threatened Mrs. Fawcett's life, and shook him out 
of his usual reserve. They had been riding together 
at Brighton, when Mrs. Fawcett was thrown 
violently from her horse. The fall knocked her 
senseless, and she did not regain consciousness for 
some time. The blind man could not be convinced 
that her stupor was not death, and that his friends, 
were not deceiving him. The grief and uncon- 
trollable weeping of the big man were infinitely 
touching. He was so completely overcome that 
he had to give up an election meeting which he had 



134 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

expected to attend in the evening. On the follow- 
ing day, at a great assembly, he referred to his 
absence, and thanked the constituency for its 
previous support, saying that whatever difficulties 
he had met had been surmounted with the aid of 
others, and because he had ' a help-mate whose 
political judgment was much less frequently at fault 
than his own.' This was his attitude to his wife 
and her opinions throughout his life. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE WOMAN AND THE VOTE 

The Home in London — Sympathy with Woman Suffrage 
— The BUnd Gardener — Clubs — Hatred of Flunkeyism. 

His belief in Woman Suffrage probably began before The Home in 
he met his wife. It was but a month after his London. 
marriage that he voted for Mill's motion in favour 
of extending the suffrage to women, the first time 
the question was introduced into the House of 
Commons. 

The hampered and restricted position of women 
industrially was a condition that stirred Fawcett 
strongly. He felt that to bring the necessary 
pressure upon legislation, women should have votes, 
and that much of the injustice from which they 
suffered was due to their political powerlessness. 

He loved a fight, and believed in competition 
to determine merit, but his spirit revolted at the 
unjust restraint of the rights of mind and virtue 
by brute force. He found that many paupers 
were women, and that their chance to support 
themselves was often negligible. So few wage- 
earning opportunities were open to them that their 
employers were able to make what terms they 
pleased with these impoverished seekers for work. 

135 



136 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

Poor women often gladly accepted wages which 
were insufficient to hold soul and body together. 
Fawcett enthusiastically advocated that women 
should be given a fair chance to do what work they 
could do well. He spoke and worked to have 
women admitted to the examinations at Cambridge. 
He did not attempt to dwell on the equality or 
inequality of man and woman, but consistent with 
his lively sense of fairness, he felt that they should 
be given at least an equal chance to develop what- 
ever powers they had. The sad fate of the 
hundreds of women whose lives were forced into 
useless inactivity depressed him : he did what he 
could all his life to open many new fields to them. 
Zeal for Fair His siuglc-handcd fight against a Bill restricting 
^^' the work of adult women was in the same direction. 

In this he took a very independent position. He 
considered that restrictions on adult women were 
an infringement of their liberty, and that it would 
probably have the effect of lessening their already 
narrow chances of employment. His quickness 
to consider this second point was evidenced also in 
his treatment of a question arising out of the bill 
for the compulsory registration of teachers. A lady 
quite unknown to Fawcett wrote that it would tend 
to prevent many a young woman who was not 
regularly employed in teaching from adding to, or 
temporarily earning, her livelihood : he at once 
answered that that side of the question had not 
struck him, but that he would call upon her 
immediately to hear her statement of facts. Mrs. 



THE WOMAN AND THE VOTE 137 

Fawcett, of course, augmented and shared her 
husband's natural enthusiasm for the enfranchise- 
ment of women. When she was asked to speak at 
Brighton on Woman's Suffrage some of his con- 
stituents objected, fearing that it would react 
unfavourably on Fawcett's political position, but 
he would not hear of preventing her carrying out 
her plan, and did then, as always, everything to 
help her in her cause. 

Since these pioneer efforts Mrs. Fawcett has been Sympathy 
and is one of the strongest and most successful suffrage.*"^ ^ 
workers in a rational and dignified campaign for 
obtaining the suffrage for women. She and her 
daughter have effectively made great sacrifices 
for the cause which they have so much advanced 
by their eloquent enthusiasm and disinterested 
and legitimate efforts. 

A most unusual honour has been accorded to 
Mrs. Fawcett. The portrait of Fawcett with his 
wife now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, 
and is at this time the only portrait of a living 
woman, not of royal blood, in that historic col- 
lection. 

Fawcett took his wife to live at 42 Bessborough The Blind 
Gardens. Later they went to live in The Lawn, 
Lambeth, where they stayed during the sittings 
of the House until his death. Despite the addi- 
tional griminess due to the vicinity of Vauxhall 
Station, the PoHtical Economist at once turned 
farmer on his estate of about three-quarters of an 
acre. He sent the asparagus which he raised 



138 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

within fifteen minutes' walk of the House of 
Commons, and which he insisted was a pecuharly 
good variety, to his father in SaHsbury as proof 
of the excellent climate of London. Two small 
greenhouses furnished opportunity for raising 
flowers. These were an unfailing source of pleasure 
to the blind man, always keenly conscious of their 
beauty and gratified by their perfume. He knew 
them all by name and took pride in showing them 
to his guests. The old-fashioned house was made 
delightful by the artistic sense of Mrs. Fawcett. 
The happy couple were unmindful of the lack of 
social distinction inherent in their neighbourhood, 
and felt that the nearness to the Houses of Parlia- 
ment, which were within pleasant walk along the 
river and over Westminster Bridge, as well as 
the horticultural opportunities, compensated their 
slender purse for any other shortcomings. 
Radical Club. ^ most fautastic incident occurred shortly after 
Fawcett's marriage which might have seriously 
affected his political career. His most sociable 
instincts had prompted him to found a club about 
the beginning of his first Parliament. It was called 
the Radical Club, and it consisted in equal numbers 
of politicians in and out of the House. Of course 
Mill joined. The club gathered influence. It 
met at weekly dinners, when the topics of the day 
were discussed. Soon afterwards Fawcett and 
his friends founded at Cambridge a new club, 
with the fearful name of Republican. It defined 
the name Republican as * Hostihty to the hereditary 



THE WOMAN AND THE VOTE 139 

principle as exemplified in monarchical and aristo- Republican 
cratic institutions, and to all social and political 
privileges dependent upon difference of sex.' 

The Republican Club was the means of pro- 
moting many delightful and charming dinners and 
evenings among a circle of brilliant and interesting 
friends. It was not a dark centre of conspiracy 
or revolution, and its members were not concocting 
a nineteenth -century version of the Gunpowder 
Plot. Unfortunately a weird and garbled account 
of the Club appeared in the papers and struck 
terror in the hearts of Fawcett's constituents. 
To them republicanism meant revolution and all 
the horrors depicted by Dickens in his Tale of 
Two Cities. One of Fawcett's best friends talked 
of making an amendment to the usual vote of 
confidence at the next Liberal meeting in Brighton. 
Though the proposed motion was given up, Fawcett 
profited by the opening to state clearly his prin- 
ciples ; he said that he adhered to * merit, not birth,' 
and denied any revolutionary predilections for his 
friends or himself, or any sentiment of disloyalty. 

Fawcett was essentially a peace-loving citizen 
when peace and progress could go hand in hand. 
He had no plans for upsetting the monarchy, • 
though he alone objected to the dowry voted by 
the House to the Princess Louise. He abominated 
flunkeyism as an aping of loyalty, and had no more Hatred of 
regard for distinctions of rank than for differences 
of creed. 

It is characteristic of him that while a democrat 



140 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

to democrats, he did not fall into the mistake of 
many broad-minded people, and forget that tact 
and congeniality are essential in bringing people 
together socially. He was very keenly alive to 
the differences in individuals, and took care that 
the gatherings at his house should be congenial 
and harmonious. When a proposed party was 
being plotted out he would say, ' Oh, don't ask the 
So-and-so's, they are such frumps.' 

Mrs. Fawcett and he were delightful hosts ; 
they liked having people at their house, and he 
greatly enjoyed his own as well as other folks* 
dinners. He was abnormally fond of salt, and to 
ensure an unfailing and adequate supply, carried 
His very own a little Sprinkling salt cellar with him, which he had 
carefully filled before dinner. He appreciated his 
food very much, and though not in any way a 
gourmand, paid full tribute to the high art of the 
cook. 



Salt Cellar. 



THE NEW M.P. 



' Darkness enwrapped him, yet with steadfast heart 
He sought, unfaltering, the highest Ught. 
His keen-eyed spirit failed not in the sight 
Which sees, and seeing, loves the better part.' 

Punch. 



CHAPTER XV 

BLIND SUPERSTITIONS 

Speech before the British Association— Mill again — 
Bright and Lord Brougham — The Mythical Committee 
Room — Defeat at South wark. 

Fawcett never deviated from his school-boy long- Blind Super- 
ing for a political career. But despite the re- ^ ' ' 
cognition which he had obtained as a speaker and 
thinker, even his best friends felt that his dream 
of a political future was worse than impracticable. 
They tried to dissuade him from his purpose, and 
make him content with a writer's life of study, 
thought and theory. 

Opposition, the breath of life to this dauntless 
man, only added another stimulating obstacle to 
those he rejoiced to overcome — blindness, lack of 
money, and lack of distinguished origin. He had 
made up his mind to be a statesman before his 
accident ; and he would in no wise falter. In the 
wonderful crucible of his genial kindliness, the 
opposition of his friends was distilled into a warm 
co-operation. He forced them to believe in his 
powers and future, and changed them into his 
enthusiastic political backers. His blindness, 
which appealed to the gentleness and pity of many, 

143 



144 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

with him became a recognised force to help him 
to great feats of memory and prodigies of con- 
centration. His very inabihty to read books and 
newspapers compelled him to cultivate his memory 
and tirelessly to think over the problems he wished 
to master. As a result of constant practice, he 
became able to memorise statistical information 
and use it in debate in a way which utterly baffled 
men of average ability. Even the most brilliant 
men of his day would have to use notes where 
Fawcett could trust to his memory alone. 
A Telling As we have said, a year after his blindness, 

^^^'^ ' with Brown to guide him, he went to Aberdeen, 

and spoke before the British Association. His 
paper there on the ' Social and Economical Influ- 
ence of the New Gold ' made a profound impression, 
and won him his first public recognition as an 
economist and statesman. He was much pleased 
with the result of his first effort in public, and the 
cordiality with which he was personally received. 

But his sociability was not, as we know, confined 
to learned persons. During a journey he found 
himself in a small Scottish inn with a lonely dinner 
in prospect ; he was cheered to hear voices in the 
next room. He sent for the landlord and asked 
who was there. * Some commercial gents,' was 
the reply. Fawcett asked the landlord to take his 
compliments to the * commercial gents,' upon which 
he received an invitation to dine with them. He 
accepted with alacrity, and passed a most jovial 
evening in their company. 



BLIND SUPERSTITIONS 145 

He next spoke at the Social Science Association 
at Bradford on the Protection of Labour from 
Immigration, and also on the theory and tendency 
of strikes. He made several loyal friends there, 
and his manifest ability led some of them to wish 
he might become a parliamentary candidate for a 
northern Borough. 

The next year he acted as the member of a 
committee appointed by the Social Science Associa- 
tion, to investigate the problem of strikes. Lord 
Brougham and others of distinction were very 
friendly to him, though the veteran Reformer 
made some remarks about the American War 
which, Fawcett said, ' drove me half wild.' 

In i860 Fawcett was greatly encouraged by a 
meeting with Mill, who congratulated him on his 
choice of a political career. Mill considered Mill and a 
that the blind man's loss of sight could only opening. 
injure his prospects of political success if with 
sight zeal had also gone. The affliction could 
be turned into an asset which would arouse sym- 
pathy, and soften jealousies. Fawcett felt elated 
and stimulated by the older man's interest and 
belief in him, and lost no time in hunting for a 
political opening. 

He interviewed Lord Stanley, but without 
results, for, as he reported to a friend. Lord 
Stanley ' thought me, I fancy, rather young.' 
And, after all, he was young — only twenty-seven 
— but he was determined. He watched for every 
chance of a bye-election, and knocked at the door 

K 



146 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

of any borough where candidates seemed Ukely 
to be in requisition. 

When he asked Mr. Bright about some Scotch 
burgh, he was kindly but firmly advised to 
wait until his star had risen a little more above 
the public horizon. But Fawcett refused to lose 
time, and made his own opportunity. An article 
appeared in the Morning Star which stated that 
South wark, then in need of a representative, had 
revolted against the control of its paid agents, and 

Bright and that a committcc had been appointed to look for 

g°^^ , an independent candidate who would stand upon 

* principles of purity.' The following morning 
Fawcett appeared before the committee. Bringing 
with him a letter from Lord Brougham, he intro- 
duced himself as * of Norfolk Street, Strand, and 
a Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.' His de- 
claration of principles was so satisfactory that the 
chairman of the committee consented to preside 
at a meeting. 

First Political Two good storics are told about this election. 

Meeting at There is evidence to show that Fawcett himself 

bouthwark. 

set them in circulation. They curiously illustrate 
both his sense of fun and his shrewdness. One 
tells of his first meeting. This was held in an inn, 
and only one reporter came to it. Fawcett began 
chatting to him, asked him if he had anything 
special to do that evening, and then, as there was 
no audience, suggested to him to go home. He 
offered to send on a resume of his speech. The 
reporter gratefully left, Fawcett then asked the 



BLIND SUPERSTITIONS 147 

landlord if there was any one in the 'parlour.' 
There were only a few commercial travellers, but 
Fawcett sent his compliments to them and asked 
them to come in. They joined him and all started 
a joyful evening together. In course of time, 
Fawcett asked one of the travellers if he would mind 
taking the chair, which he did. Fawcett then 
made a brief speech, and after drinks and a very 
merry time the party broke up, whereupon Fawcett 
wrote an account of the evening to his friend the 
reporter, giving the speech from the chair, which 
he of course made up, and his own oration. 

As there was nothing particular doing, to 
Fawcett 's surprise, the next day the London papers 
came out with a full account of the meeting at 
Southwark. 

Fawcett went promptly to see the chairman of 
the previous evening, whom he found absorbed in 
the account of the great meeting. ' Why,' he 
exclaimed to Fawcett, ' I had no idea I made this 
speech last night. I have made speeches before, 
and I usually remember them ! I only had a glass 
or two ! I cannot see why I should have forgotten 
this one.' To which Fawcett replied quietly, 
* You certainly have been well reported,' and left 
the bewildered orator to revel in his eloquence. 

Lord Avebury said of this tale, which he had 
repeated to the writer : ' Tyndall was much 
shocked by this story, but I thought that the 
cleverness far outweighed the wickedness, and the 
humour of it appealed to me greatly.' 



148 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



The other story tells of Fawcett's mythical 
committee room. It is to be remembered that he 
was quite unknown, and put himself up without 
support and with no possibility of winning. 

He engaged a very small room and a very small 
boy to open its door. The candidate was rarely 
at headquarters, but his acolyte kept up appear- 
ances by informing any one who called that Mr. 
Fawcett was engaged with his committee. 

He stood for a larger franchise ; abolition of 
Church rates ; removal of religious restrictions ; 
economy ; the volunteer movement ; the equalisa- 
tion of poor rates, and the reform of local govern- 
ment in London. He proved his principles of 
purity by refusing to pay a shilling to influence 
votes. 

His success was immediate. The meetings that 
followed the first were crowded and overflowing. 
His interesting personality drew people from all 
parts of London to his meetings, till even the 
neighbouring streets were crowded. 

But the other candidate entered the field. A 
campaign was started on behalf of a Mr. Scovell. 
This did not open with success. A meeting held 
for Scovell broke up in a pandemonium. Fawcett 
had the satisfaction a few days later of holding an 
orderly and overcrowded meeting in the very 
same hall. 

The opposition now introduced a more formidable 
candidate in Mr. Layard (later Sir Austin Heniy) ; 
the Government and the great employers were 



BLIND SUPERSTITIONS 149 

understood to favour him. This opposition seemed 
to decide the contest against Fawcett, and his 
friend LesHe Stephen says that he doubts if Fawcett 
ever seriously expected to go to the poll. Never- 
theless he had his committee room duly placarded, 
though the candidate with his small attendant 
guide seems still to have been the committee. 
Fawcett spoke every night, and urged without 
success that a mass meeting of electors should 
choose between his qualifications and Layard's ! 

Of course his opponents urged that Fawcett 's 
obvious disqualification was his blindness, and that 
this was an insurmountable obstacle. The matter 
was hotly debated on both sides. All sorts of 
arguments were brought up at meetings and in the 
newspapers. How could a blind man decide 
questions about the laying out of streets ? Fawcett 
showed how he could judge accurately of such 
things by putting pins in a map. How could he 
' catch the Speaker's eye ' ? This objection amused The Speaker's 
Fawcett and his friends greatly. It is true that ^^' 
no member can raise his voice in the Commons 
unless able to perform that ceremony. But, as 
Fawcett gleefully explained, that mysterious 
ceremony consists in standing in one's place hat 
in hand, no difficult task for a blind man. It is 
for the roving eye of the Speaker to note the 
standing member and announce his name to the 
assembly. He thus gaily disposed of these objec- 
tions, and cheerfully asked ' Mr. Layard to argue 
with him any point supposed to require eye- 



150 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

sight,* when he would show his power of dealing 
with it. 

Friends came forward to testify, at meetings and 
by letter, to his great abilities, and the editor of the 
Morning Star, which had treated his first speech so 
generously, delivered an eloquent oration in his 
favour. 
Triumphant Fawcctt fought that large borough for a month 

Defeat o o 

on less than ;^250. But the odds were too great, 
and he wisely decided not to go to the poll, where 
Layard obtained a majority of one thousand votes 
over Scovell. 

Fawcett told a friend that this defeat would 
ensure him victory at the next contest. Notwith- 
standing his optimistic belief, he had still much to 
win through. He had shown his power of influ- 
encing a constituency, but he had still to overcome 
the scepticism in the minds of practical men as to 
the capabilities of a blind man, and to create for 
himself a support which could be counted on as a 
more positive factor than mere popular enthusiasm. 



CHAPTER XVI 

PURE POLITICS 

Defeat at Cambridge and Brighton — Routing a Chimasra 
— Elected the Member for Brighton — The House of 
Commons. 

Fawcett's day was no more free from political 
chicanery and wire-pulling than our own. Like 
all aspirants, he was sorely pressed to compromise 
with the underworld of politics, but he kept him- 
self clear of the political mire, and made no promise 
which he could not justly fulfil. 

While waiting for his next chance his life was as 
usual busy and happy, labouring over papers for 
Macmillan's Magazine, editing his books, lecturing, 
and generally leading the honest, frugal life of a 
man of letters. This quiet was diversified by 
Fawcett's one and only * flutter ' in mining shares. The Flutter. 
His father had been for some years working to 
retrieve the fortunes of a big mining undertaking 
in Cornwall. The son had been much interested, 
and accompanied his father on several business 
journeys to the mine. 

The elder Fawcett at last pulled his undertaking 
to a successful issue ; this success gave a sudden 
filHp to mining shares. The son 'plunged,' and 
plunged with success — so much so that he was 

151 



152 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

seriously advised to give up politics, for the time at 
least, and go on the Stock Exchange. 

But he was not to be tempted by the lure of 
quick monetary success. 

* I am convinced,' he said once, ' that the duties 
of a member of the House of Commons are so 
multifarious, the questions brought before him so 
complicated and difficult, that if he fully discharges 
his duty, he requires almost a lifetime of study.' 
And again, ' If I take up this profession, I will not 
trifle with the interests of my country. I will not 
trifle with the interests of my constituents by going 
into the House of Commons inadequately pre- 
pared, because I gave up to the acquisition of 
wealth the time which I ought to have spent in 
the acquisition of political knowledge.' 

The sacrifice was unquestionable, and it em- 
phasises his firm adherence to his ideals, and his 
willingness to sacrifice great personal interests 
for the still uncertain career on which he had set 
his heart. 

In 1863 a vacancy occurred in the representation 
of Cambridge. Fawcett's friend, Macmillan, now 
came forward, begging Fawcett to issue an address, 
which was circulated broadcast. 

' If I am anybody's candidate,' Fawcett said, 
* I am Macmillan's candidate,' but he tried to be 
nobody's candidate. 

His friends helped him vigorously, presiding or 
speaking at his meetings, or acting as his election 
agents. 



PURE POLITICS 153 

Fawcett the elder came to support his son. 
Though the local papers assailed him, the most 
condemning assertions they could make were that 
Fawcett was an advanced Radical, who would 
abolish Church rates, though he professed to be 
a member of the Church of England ; and worst of 
all, that he was capable of the crime of admitting 
Dissenters to Fellowships. How funny that latter 
accusation seems now, when the only question in 
obtaining a fellowship is, Has the man the brains 
to win it ? 

Fawcett was defeated by eighty-one votes. The Defeat 
The cost of the campaign had amounted to ;^6oo, ^' ^"^ " ^^' 
but it had shown that Fawcett * could go to the 
poll as well as make speeches.' 

The election took place the same year that 
Fawcett was given the Chair of Political Economy, 
and made this latter honour all the greater, as it 
came despite his fearless Radical protestations. 

The following January we find him coming 
forward as a Liberal candidate at a bye-election 
in Brighton. Three other Liberals presented them- 
selves, and it was decided to have a meeting at 
which a committee, appointed by the electors, 
was to report on the merits of the candidates. 
The candidates should then address the meeting, 
and the decision was to be made by show of hands. 
But the committee managed ill, exceeding its in- 
structions, and the meeting became a tumult. In 
the midst of the uproar Fawcett came forward 
and won probably the greatest oratorical triumph 



154 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

of his life. He began amidst great interruption, 
and after a few sentences the vast body of electors 
listened with breathless attention. 

Fawcett told them his story. ' You do not know 
me now,' he said, 'but you shall know me in the 
course of a few minutes.* He proceeded with the 
account of his accident, during which, says the 
reporter, ' a deep feeling of pity and sympathy 
seemed to pervade the meeting.' He told them 
how he had been blinded by two stray shots 
* from a companion's gun ' ; how the lovely land- 
scape had been instantly blotted out ; and how 
he knew that every lovely scene would be hence- 
forth ' shrouded in impenetrable gloom.' * It was 
a blow to a man,' he said simply ; but in ten 
minutes he had made up his mind to face the 
difficulty bravely. He would never ask for 
sympathy, but he demanded to be treated as an 
Routing a cqual. He went on with the story of his previous 
attempts to enter Parliament, and ended with a 
profession of his political principles. 

This account of the meeting is given by Stephen, 
who adds the comment : ' I do not think Fawcett 
ever again referred to his accident in public, except 
in speaking to fellow-sufferers. His blindness was 
apparently being made an insuperable obstacle ; 
his best and most natural answer was to tell the 
plain story of his struggle, and he told it with a 
straightforward manliness which carried away his 
audience.' 

The other candidates had spoken in a hesitating 



Chimcera. 



PURE POLITICS 155 

way about the attitude that England should hold 
towards the American Civil War. Fawcett began 
the political part of his speech by saying : ' Gentle- 
men, I am an uncompromising Northerner,' a 
statement that greatly pleased the meeting. 

Then the hard work of electioneering began. 
Fawcett set himself vigorously to the task, speak- 
ing effectively and often. His father and sister 
came to him to inspire and help as they could. 
His friend LesHe Stephen buckled on his friendly 
armour, and with all his love and great abilities 
did much to help in the brave campaign. He 
began by writing an article urging Fawcett's 
qualifications. It was refused in all the local 
papers, but this difficulty was gallantly sur- 
mounted . The editor of the Morning Star^ who had 
supported Fawcett in his Southwark campaign, 
lent sufficient type ; a room was taken, and the 
Brighton Election Reporter started a brief but 
brilliant career. Leslie Stephen became editor 
and moving spirit in chief. The publication was 
sold at a halfpenny a copy. Was it shrewdness 
or love for boys — for both were in Fawcett in full 
measure — that determined that the newsboys 
should keep the halfpence for themselves ? Certain 
it is that the paper had a wide and speedy circula- 
tion, and though Stephen modestly refuses it a 
permanent place in the world of letters, it played a Sir Leslie 
very important and effective part in Fawcett's ^^^' 
candidature. 

When the conflict was at its highest the in- 



156 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



Nomination 
Day. 



Political 
Eggs. 



augural lecture as Professor of Political Economy 
took place. Fawcett delivered the lecture at 
Cambridge in the morning, and the same evening 
was back in Brighton addressing a meeting. 

On nomination day the candidates duly drove 
to the Town Hall. In the sixties this was an 
occasion for much rowdiness. The blind candidate 
did not shrink from rough contacts, and doubtless 
enjoyed the commotion as much as any. The 
varying notes in the discordant shouts of the mob 
told his sensitive ears every subtlety of friendly 
greeting or enmity. The rattle of pebbles against 
the window panes, or their thud as they struck a 
victim, the squelch of an ancient egg against the 
side of the carriage — all bore their message to the 
man from whom sight was withheld. And the 
sense of smell brought him knowledge too — of the 
hot, unwashed crowd, of the dust-trampled road, 
of the stale vegetables and ' political eggs ' that 
hurtled through the air. Every phase of the day's 
emotion was present to him and shared by him, 
thanks to his imagination, alertness and genial 
power of good fellowship. 

The election took place on February 15. 

Fawcett headed the poll in the early hours, when 
the working men voted, but he was finally defeated 
by one hundred and ninety-five by Moore, the 
Conservative candidate. Had the votes not been 
so split up by four candidates, the Liberal triumph 
would have been secured and Fawcett elected. 

He took his defeat cheerfully, and indeed had 



PURE POLITICS 157 

some reason to be satisfied. He had done quite 
well enough for his success in the next election to 
seem positive. 

In the autumn of the same year he again 
addressed meetings at Brighton, and made his 
best speech on Parliamentary Reform. 

* Fawcett spoke of the honourable attitude of 
the working classes during the American War, and 
upon the reception of Garibaldi in London. They 
proved, he said, that the questions which really 
roused enthusiasm in the English people were 
those which appealed to their moral sentiments. 
He argued that something must be rotten if a 
man at 20s. a week had not as much interest in 
the peace and prosperity of the country as his 
neighbour with ;^io,ooo a year. The sufferings 
inflicted by a war fall chiefly upon the poor ; and 
any argument which implied that they should be 
rightfully excluded from the franchise as incom- 
petent and indifferent, was an argument denoting 
a degraded and unwholesome state of feeling.' 

It is significant how Fawcett's whole nature The Tide 

1 r • 1 1 1-1 n J of Freedom. 

rose to the wave of mdependence which was nood- 
ing the world. The emancipation of Italy, the 
freeing of the Amercian slaves, and kindred 
struggles to give the lesser man a fair chance, 
found an echo in the policy which he championed 
for the helpless labouring classes. He was a lusty 
swimmer on this tide of freedom. He believed 
that working men were divided in their opinions 
as much as any other class, and that therefore, it 



158 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

was futile to fear that the rich vote would be 
killed by the poor. His attitude towards any 
proposal for reform of the franchise was : * Do 
we think it will cause the various sections of opinion 
to be more independently and honestly repre- 
sented ? ' 

Mill thought well of Fawcett's speech on Parlia- 
mentary Reform, but he was opposed to his doctrine 
that workmen would not probably be united in 
their opinions. Mill felt that no matter how 
workmen might differ on other points, they 
would be united on whatever touched their class 
interests. 
Back to The Brighton election was now at hand. At a 

"g ton. great meeting held at the riding -school of the 
Pavilion, the two Liberal candidates, Mr. White, 
the sitting Liberal member, and Fawcett appeared, 
and resolutions in their favour were passed. 
Fawcett's father was also present and enthusiastic- 
ally received. Fawcett placed his difficulties cheer- 
fully before his audience. ' A Tory,' he said, ' had 
summed them up by saying that he would have to 
contend with ;i^i500 from the Carlton, and a cart- 
load of slander.' 

The serious arguments against Fawcett were 
that he was a poor man, and that he was plotting 
the ruin of the tradesmen by his advocacy of co- 
operation . He frankly accepted both these charges, 
saying that he favoured co-operation as the best 
cure for poverty, and that he was certainly poor, 
having deliberately preferred the study of politics 



PURE POLITICS 159 

to money -making. Poverty, he said, did not 
weaken a man's influence in Parliament. Cobden, 
then recently dead, was a poor man, but he had 
* vanquished a proud aristocracy and had given 
cheap bread to millions of his countrymen.' 
' Every word uttered by Cobden in the House of 
Commons made its impression, whilst the words 
of millionaires might pass unnoticed.' Poverty 
would not destroy a man's influence in the House, 
if he were thoroughly qualified for his position, 
nor would it prevent his return by an independent 
constituency in spite of all ostentation of richer 
men. 

In this case, Fawcett's optimism was justified, 
though Mammon had his usual good position in 
Brighton ; candidates who could dispense cham- 
pagne freely and spend money to help trade and 
politics were naturally preferred to candidates 
who were equipped solely with lofty principles 
and poverty. So it is much to the credit of the 
community that for at least a time it accepted 
higher things, and elected a blind member with 
high ideals and no money. 

On the day of the election (July 12, 1865) The victor. 
6492 out of 8661 electors polled, and the 
numbers were — White 3065 ; Fawcett 2665 ; 
Moore 2134. 

At last Fawcett was an M.P., and at thirty- 
two had arrived at the goal towards which from boy- 
hood he had set himself so unflinchingly. The 
letter which he wrote to his father of his first day 



i6o A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

in the House of Commons, deserves to be quoted 
in full. 



' 123 Cambridge Street, Warwick Square, 

London, Feb. i, 1866. 

A Letter ' My DEAR FATHER, — I have just returned from my 

first experience of the House of Commons. I went 
there early in the morning, and soon found that I 
should have no difficulty in finding my way about. I 
walked in with Tom Hughes about five minutes to two, 
and a most convenient seat close to the door was at 
once, as it were, conceded to me ; and I have no doubt 
that it will always be considered my seat. Every one 
was most kind, and I was quite overwhelmed with con- 
gratulations. I am glad that my first visit is over, as I 
shall now feel perfect confidence that I shall be able to 
get on without any particular difficulty. The seat I 
have is as convenient a one as any in the House, and a 
capital place to speak from. I walked away from the 
House of Commons with Mill. He sits on the bench 
just above me, close to Bright. I sit next but one to 
Danby Seymour. White (his colleague for Brighton) 
is three or four places from me. 

' Mother has indeed made a most wise selection in 
lodgings. They at present seem everything I could 
desire ; the rooms are larger than I expected, and Mrs. 
Lark and the servant are most civil and obliging. 
This is everything in lodgings. I can walk to the 
House of Commons in exactly a quarter of an hour ; 
this is not too far. Accept my best thanks for the 
hamper. Everything has arrived quite safely, and all 
the contents will prove most acceptable. We are going 



PURE POLITICS i6i 

to have the fowl for dinner to-night at seven. I hope, 
now that I am so comfortably settled, some of you will 
often come to London. When am I to expect Maria ? 
Give my kindest love to Mother and to her, and in 
great haste, to save post, believe me, dear Father, 
ever yours affectionately, 

' Henry Fawcett.' 

When Fawcett was elected M.P. the great Parliamentary 
' Pam ' still led the Liberals, Radicals and Whigs, ^'^""^• 
but he died before Parliament met. By the time 
of Fawcett's visit to the House described in the 
foregoing letter. Lord John Russell, the successor 
of Lord Palmerston as Prime Minister, had resigned 
the leadership of the Commons to Gladstone, who 
for a generation was to dominate English 
Liberalism. Bright, known to his supporters as 
the Tribune of the People, from his seat below the 
gangway, led the Radical wing. It was much 
strengthened by many new men, among whom 
John Stuart Mill was conspicuous. He repre- 
sented Westminster, having experienced perhaps 
the most unique election in English politics. The 
Conservative opposition was led by Disraeli, known 
already, not only as a wearer of gorgeous waist- 
coats and a writer of brilHant political novels, but 
also for his strong and vivid personality. In the 
next few years he was to show his even more 
extraordinary gifts as a manipulator of Padia- 
ments. 



CHAPTER XVII 

A PROPHETIC QUESTION IN PARLIAMENT 

The Blind and Silent M.P.— His First Speech— Protect- 
ing Cattle, Neglecting Children — Industry earns Penury 
—Mill 'out.' 

The Blind SURROUNDED by these picturesque personages 
and^Siient already so familiar to him, some by repute, and 
some by personal friendship, the blind M.P. quietly 
took his place. He had to learn the ways of the 
House, and, duly estimating the value of the un- 
spoken word, said very little during his first 
Parliament. 
His First In view of his subsequent career, it is suggestive 

Speech. ^-j^^^^ Fawcett spoke in Parliament almost for the 

first time ' when he asked why the wages of certain 
letter-carriers had not been raised by the Post 
Office. His first serious speech was in March 1866, 
in favour of the ill-fated Reform Bill brought in 
by Russell, and hailed by Bright with the doubt- 
ful welcome that half a loaf is better than no 
bread. 

Fawcett in this speech repudiated indignantly 
the sneers at the working classes made by certain 
Whigs, and praised the fine political sense shown 
by them during the American War. He said that 
the problems of the future were the problems of 



A PROPHETIC QUESTION 163 

capital and labour, and in these the working classes 
were most deeply interested and should directly 
affect the decisions to be made. He further main- 
tained (in spite of the previously noted criticism 
of Mill) that the working classes would no more 
vote en masse than any other section of the com- 
munity. 

As the gentle reader may know, in the House of 
Commons the long benches, upholstered in dark 
green leather, face one another in two raised tiers. 
There are no desks as in the American House of 
Representatives, and the men sit close together, 
the serried rows of faces making long lines of light 
against the dark background. Between them is 
the broad passage-way that leads up from the bar 
to the Speaker's chair, in front of which is set the 
great table on which many a minister's hand has 
hammered away his superabundant energy as his 
words made history. Fawcett sat on the lowest Where 
bench at the end farthest from the table. When fawcett sat. 
he stood up to speak he was in all his long length 
in full view of the members who opposed him and of 
the leaders of his own party, who sat near the table 
on a bench that was continuous with his own. 

The impression he made when speaking was of 
intense earnestness. His commanding presence 
and strongly marked individuality compelled atten- 
tion. His voice was phenomenally clear, ranging 
from an almost nasal twang to tones of rare sweet- 
ness. His head was held very erect, every feature 
quick with intelligence saving the eyes shaded by 



i64 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

the dark glasses, which gave a pathos to the face. 
The mouth was very mobile, sometimes trembling 
with eagerness for utterance, and with an under- 
lying expression of wistfulness often routed by 
swift smiles. There was never anything cheap or 
theatrical about the man ; he was simple, genuine, 
noble, and spoke fearlessly from his big heart, 
pleading the cause of the poor and the oppressed. 
The Reform Bill was withdrawn, and at the end 
of the summer the Liberals resigned ofifice. There 
was no general election, and the next year Disraeli 
from the Government benches faced a House in 
which the majority were in opposition. 

During the winter there had been so much 
demonstration of public feeling that the Con- 
servatives had to bring in a Reform Bill of their 
own. Their Bill appeared to be generous, but 
was hedged about with many provisoes and 
exceptions. Gladstone wished his followers to 
vote against it on the ground that it was hopelessly 
bad, and Bright agreed with this policy. But 
some Radicals, among whom was Fawcett, con- 
sidered that to vote against any Reform Bill was 
retrograde, and they declined to follow Gladstone's 
Tea- Room lead. Thesc men were known as the Tea-Room 
^'^"y* Party, as they plotted their rebellion from that 

comfortable retreat within the recesses of the 
Parliamentary buildings. They held out, in spite 
of the reproach that they were showing more 
confidence in their opponents than in their own 
leaders, and contended that to vote against any 



A PROPHETIC QUESTION 165 

Reform was to put themselves in a false position. 
A deputation of five, of which one was Fawcett, 
waited on Gladstone to give their views. Fawcett 
was distressed at this early necessity of opposing 
his chief, and often spoke with admiration of 
Gladstone's earnestness and ability. The Tea- 
Room party won their way, and Disraeli's Bill 
passed, but the Liberals and Radicals so altered it 
that it became a more democratic bill than the one 
the Tory leader and his party had opposed the 
previous session. 

It was during these debates that Fawcett both 
spoke and voted in favour of Mill's amendment 
to admit women to the franchise. 

During his first Parliament he made himself 
felt as an ardent and determined Radical. He 
made various proposals to help his poor friends the 
labourers in the agricultural districts, and spoke 
forcibly on ' the interest taken in the cattle-plague. Protecting 
by some members, and the want of interest in the neglecting 
more terrible plague which was ruining thousands Children. 
of the constituents of the same gentlemen.' 

He urged the extension of the Factory Acts to 
agricultural labourers, and complained that these 
Acts had been opposed by the rich on the * paltry 
or cold-hearted plea that they would interfere 
with industry ; as if it were the mission of a great 
nation simply to produce bales of goods and to 
swell exports and imports, even at the cost of 
sacrificing the health and blighting the minds of 
the young ! * 



i66 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

It was in order to promote the prosperity of all 
classes that Fawcett longed for a truly national 
and representative Parliament. He had no sym- 
pathy with those who thought it necessary to 
* stem the tide of democracy.' 

He was also eager to make it more possible for 
poor men to enter Parliament, and urged a reform 
that is still being agitated — that the expenses of 
the returning ofificers at elections should be paid 
by the State. * It was impossible,' he said, * to 
exaggerate the mischief of thus shutting out the 
ablest men from political life.' This reform was 
urged many times and in different Pariiaments by 
Fawcett, but in spite of his tenacity he did not 
succeed in carrying it through. 

Already he had entered into that discussion of 
Indian affairs which was to open up such a noble 
chapter in his life. He had also done good service 
in committee on the Bill for University Reform. 
An impression on the House had been made by his 
honest zeal, and though he had been perhaps a 
little too radical for his party leader, his Radical 
supporters could find no reason for dissatisfaction 
with him. For all time the chimsera that his blind- 
ness would prove an obstacle to his remarkable 
efficiency had disappeared. 
General Parliament was dissolved in 1868, and a general 

^ggg^'°"°^ election took place in the summer. Part of the 
constituency of Brighton longed for a rich re- 
presentative, and as one of his opponents was 
popular and kept a yacht, Fawcett 's struggle for 



A PROPHETIC QUESTION 167 

re-election was sharply fought, and he came out 
with no more than a respectable majority. 

Gladstone was re-elected, but all the working- 
class candidates were defeated. This distressed 
Fawcett greatly. His friendships with many work- 
ing men, and his knowledge of their fitness to 
represent their fellows, made him appreciate the 
real loss this meant to the country. 

Professor Cairnes of Dublin had first met 
Fawcett in the long ago days of the British Associa- 
tion Meeting at Aberdeen. He was a political 
economist of much distinction, but had become a 
helpless invalid, and lived for years in great suffer- 
ing. Fawcett had much affection for him, and 
neglected no opportunity to run down to his friend's 
house at Blackheath, taking to the sufferer by his 
own vitaHty, and high, mirth-loving spirits, en- 
couragement, new life and energy. Lord Courtney 
completed the congenial and closely united trio, 
and Fawcett's public action was often the result of 
much careful discussion with the other two. 

The following letter, written during these elections 
to his invalid friend, shows much of Fawcett's 
feeling at the time. 

' I begin to be very confident that Gladstone will 
obtain a great majority. The Irish Church would 
have been a good cry to have appealed to the old 
constituencies on, but working men neither care 
about the Irish Church nor any other Church. The 
election, though satisfactory in a party sense, will, 
I fear, return a House scarcely superior in char- 



i68 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

acter to the last. Few good new men are coming 
out, and more over-rich manufacturers and iron- 
masters are standing than ever. Before the next 
general election after the coming one, the working 
men will have felt their power and will have learnt, 
perhaps by bitter experience, that Liberals do not 
all belong to the same species ; in fact a con- 
summate naturalist, like Darwin, would classify 
The Condition Mill and Harvey Lewis as belonging to different 
^^^^' and well-defined genera. Something must be done 
immediately Parliament meets to check election 
expenses. When last I saw you in Dover Street, 
I little thought that late that evening the Govern- 
ment would give notice of reversing the clause I 
passed for throwing necessary election expenses 
on the rates. 

* The shabby tactics of Disraeli have done much 
to make the country favour the clause. If I am 
returned I shall embody the clause in a bill and 
introduce it the first night of the session. I have 
had no news about Westminster since leaving 
London, but I cling to the conviction that Mill is 
safe. I spent a day at Brighton about a fortnight 
since, and everything there looks as promising as 
possible. Did you read Hooker's address to the 
British Association ? Some portions of it were 
most masterly ; the Spectator is, I think, just in 
its criticism of his sweeping hostility to all meta- 
physics. When the next essay is written on peasant 
proprietors, the ;^26,ooo,ooo which have been sub- 
scribed in cash, a great portion of it by French 



A PROPHETIC QUESTION 169 

peasants, to the recent loan, will provide a strong 

argument in favour of cultivation by the owner. I 

am staying in the midst of what is considered to be 

one of the most prosperous agricultural districts 

of England, It would be almost impossible to 

find a labourer who had saved a sovereign, and industry 

not one in a thousand of these labourers will ^^"""^ Penury. 

save enough to keep him from the poor rates 

when old age compels him to cease work. Yet 

nine EngHshmen out of ten think that it is in 

agriculture that we show our great superiority to 

the French.' 

Cairnes replies with an interesting letter of 
warm congratulations, in which he deplores bitterly 
the defeat as candidate for the Liberal party of 
that * exemplar of far-seeing statesmanship, com- 
manding views, and lofty moral purpose,' Mill, 
and adds, * How the enemies of truth and light will 
blaspheme ! ' 

Fawcett's reply to Cairnes' letter gives a vivid 
idea of the condition of politics. He writes in 
December 1868, ' You and I feel alike about the 
rejection of Mill. Those who have watched him 
in the House of Commons can perhaps fully realise 
the injury which his rejection has inflicted on 
English politics. He diffused a certain moral 
atmosphere over an assembly whose average tone 
is certainly not high. A letter which I received 
from Mill yesterday confirms me in the belief I Mill 'out' 
have long entertained, that Parliament involved 
to him a most severe personal sacrifice. He speaks 



170 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

almost with enthusiastic joy of being restored 
to freedom, and he is evidently supremely happy 
in the prospect of being able to work unin- 
terruptedly. Still I am sure his sense of public 
duty is so high that he would at once accept a seat 
if one were offered to him. The working men 
know what a friend he is of theirs, and I believe 
they are determined to return him the first time 
a good opportunity offers. The Liberal majority 
at the general election is of course eminently satis- 
factory, but there is much in the constitution of 
the present House which is very disappointing. 
Intellectually it is inferior to the last, and wealthy 
uneducated manufacturers and merchants are more 
predominant than ever. Mill always predicted 
that this would be the case, thinking that the 
new voters would require two or three years 
to understand the power which had been given 
to them. 
The third * I had a hard fight at Brighton. Not only was 

Brighton there disunion in my own party, got up by a small 

section, who thought I did not spend enough 
money in the town, but the Tory who opposed me 
was very rich, and all that wealth could do against 
me was done. 

' My success was peculiarly satisfactory, because 
it was obtained without a paid agent or a paid 
canvasser ; and we never held even a meeting at a 
public house. 

* I quite agree with you that the present Govern- 
ment will have to be most narrowly watched with 



A PROPHETIC QUESTION 171 

regard to what they do upon education and the 
land question.' 

His ever-increasing responsibilities exhilarated 
Fawcett, and his friendships increased in propor- 
tion ; he was always accumulating relays of young 
friends who filled up the sad gaps caused by death. 
If he had lived to be a Methuselah he would have 
died regretted by troops of young folks. He and 
his wife were now much sought after, and they 
much enjoyed festivities together. Mrs. Fawcett 
was frequently amused by her husband's delight 
in gossip and his irrepressible boyishness. 

One evening, at the house of a friend, Fawcett met 
another M.P. They immediately retired together 
to a remote corner of the room, where they dis- 
cussed in low and earnest voices. Mrs. Fawcett, 
thinking that they were debating matters of State, 
was much surprised when she happened to pass 
near them to hear Fawcett asking eagerly, * Was 
it her fault or his fault ? ' 

On another occasion, shortly after skating on Roller 
rollers was introduced, Mrs. Fawcett went to a swatmg. 
rink, and as she came in was told that a most 
extraordinary thing was going on — there was a 
blind man trying roller-skating. It was her 
husband, whizzing round delightedly. Fawcett 
was having a royal time, darting like a huge swallow 
in swift circles about the skating rink. He re- 
velled in the motion and the exercise, which put 
him into a fine glow. The merry noise of many 
little wooden wheels rolling smoothly over the 



172 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

polished floor — the Hfting and stumbling of awk- 
ward feet, and the skilful glide of the good skaters 
gave him a happy consciousness of the gay re- 
volving spectacle through which he winged his 
way. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

GLADSTONE PRIME MINISTER 

Opposition to Gladstone — 'The most Thorough Radical 
Member in the House' — Growing Dissatisfaction with 
the Government — The Irish Universities Bill — Helping 
to Defeat his own Party. 

In the new Parliament Gladstone became Prime Gladstone 
Minister for the first time. Fawcett had much ^^^ ^awcett. 
appreciation of his leader's wonderful powers, of 
his ability as a financier, of his sincerity as a re- 
former, and of his right to the support of the 
Liberal party. 

But the ramifications, subtleties and luminosities 
of Gladstone's marvellous intellect and culture 
were a closed book to Fawcett's downright, strong, 
unimaginative and limited mind, limited in a 
sense by its very excellencies, its honesties, its in- 
sistence on the real, the well proved, his willing- 
ness to consider the workable problem only, re- 
jecting all inquiries which savoured of the vision- 
ary, the philosophic, or the purely aesthetic. What- 
ever Fawcett's mind was willing to dally with or 
to assimilate must have the qualities of service- 
ableness and a certain homespun simplicity. 
Culture for its own sake, the higher flights of the 

imagination, and struggles to pierce the veil of 

173 



174 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

the unknown seemed to him a sentimental waste 
of good time which could better be spent on real 
work or good play. 
A Difference The great flights which Gladstone's intellect 
mentT^"^ revelled in, his delight in ancient as well as in the 
most recent philosophy, seemed as amusing and 
unnecessary to Fawcett as it was to him profitless 
and extravagant. 

In their entirely divergent points of view we 
must recognise the cause of much of the later in- 
compatibility of these two temperaments which 
really never understood each other, and had not the 
power to meet on a truly common footing. 
The Bills of In the session of 1869 they struck fire more than 
^' once. The Bill for removing Religious Tests at the 

Universities did not satisfy Fawcett, and he also 
much disapproved of the financial arrangements 
in the Bill for disestablishing the Irish Church. 
The Education Bill pleased him as little. The 
phrase * We must educate our masters ' represented 
the feeling of many in regard to the newly en- 
franchised labour. To them education was a 
desperate safeguard against a necessary evil. To 
Fawcett it was the beautiful and logical outcome 
of a simple act of justice. The Education Bill of 
1870 was hampered by conflicting religious diffl- 
culties, and the resultant law was a compromise 
little to Fawcett's liking. 

Fawcett's position in Parliament had now become 
strong and unique. A contemporary writes of 
him as 'the most thorough Radical now in the 



GLADSTONE PRIME MINISTER 175 

House.' He was regarded as a leader of the 
extreme party. 

As a critic of the Government he was ruthless 
and reckless, like a mighty woodman hacking 
mercilessly at ill-grown timber. There was ample a Radical of 
reason for his dissatisfaction, as he emphatically ' ^ ^ ^^^ ^' 
proved to a crowded meeting at Brighton. 

He began by telling a story to which he often 
referred. Some old-fashioned Liberal had told 
him that after two hours' reflection he and his 
friends had been unable to answer the question, 
what there was for the Liberal party to do. Fawcett 
said that he had enlightened his friend in the course 
of a short stroll, and he now proceeded to enlighten 
his constituents. He began by insisting upon the 
shortcomings of the previous sessions. The Irish 
Church had been disestablished, but at the cost of 
a bribe of £7,000,000. The praise bestowed upon 
the Education Act was, as often happened, one 
more proof that it was *a feeble and timorous 
compromise.' Time had been wasted in 'squab- 
bling over a paltry religious difficulty,' which had 
been handed over to the local authorities instead 
of finally settled by Parliament. The University 
Tests had been only half settled. The Ballot Bill 
was a good measure, yet it left the most serious 
difficulty of election expenses inadequately treated. 
' We had therefore still to make up leeway ; but 
above all we had to introduce new ideas.' In this 
last sentence he emphasised the paralysis of pro- 
gress which had so long crippled the advance of 



176 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

England. New cures, new methods, new energy, 
were what this young politician had craved from 
the first of his co-workers. 
New Ideas. Full of life and enthusiasm, the blind youth 

abounded in plans to make the world happier and 
saner. It should have no rest till his thoughts had 
become beneficient law. He prodded those sedate 
Whiggish gentlemen who formed so large a part 
of the Liberal majority on the importance of a fair 
minority representation. He cried out that there 
must be * no more hereditary legislation, and that 
the House of Lords needed reform.' He held 
before them abuses connected with the Poor Laws, 
and the horrible fact that in England one in every 
twenty of their fellows was then a pauper. 

The party whips and organisers used to say that 
whatever was proposed, Fawcett would say some- 
thing disagreeable. Fawcett did, in fact, say the 
Being dis- ' most disagreeable' thing pretty often, because 
agreeable. nothing can be so disagreeable as an opposition 
based upon the very principle of which the party 
claims a special monopoly. 

Fawcett's increasing dissatisfaction with the 
Government was strongly set forth in an article in 
the Fortnightly Review of 1871 ' On the Present 
Position of the Government.' 

It was a vigorous criticism of the ministry. 
While giving them credit for what they had done, 
he contended that the reforms that had been 
attempted were but half-heartedly done, and had 
riot met the evils they were supposed to overcome. 



GLADSTONE PRIME MINISTER 177 

He mentioned many of the questions we have 
already referred to, but he also spoke of two others 
that will be discussed more fully in later chapters. 
He complained that the Government had done its 
utmost to promote the enclosure of English 
commons, and that Indian Finance had been dis- 
missed by the Cabinet with fifteen minutes' dis- 
cussion. 

He forestalled the rejoinder that the Government 
was not to be expected to satisfy the extreme 
Radicals, by claiming that it did not even keep 
up with the main body of its supporters. It was 
enormously pleased with itself when it, ' after much 
curious twisting, and many a dubious halt, decided 
to accept a principle which, years before, had been 
endorsed at a hundred provincial meetings.' 

He felt that while Government could have kept 
the enthusiasm of its supporters by following out 
a simple, strong policy, it had injured itself and 
disgusted them, not by going too far, but by shilly- 
shallying, compromising, and equivocating. This 
frankness hurt Fawcett's position with the strong 
supporters of the Government, and he was looked 
on as its enemy, so that the Government Whips 
did not even send him the usual notices. 

Then came the last great battle of that Parlia- The Irish 
ment, in which Fawcett was to play so dramatic bhl ^'^^^'^ 
a part. Trinity College, Dublin, was a Protestant 
university financed by the State. Liberals were 
eager to remove the religious tests which prevented 
Catholics from enjoying the emoluments of the 

u 



178 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

college. This proposal had Fawcett's enthusiastic 
sympathy. His standpoint in dealing with these 
questions can best be shown by a comment he once 
made on Mill's book on Liberty. 

'As I was reading Mill's Liberty — perhaps the 
greatest work of our greatest living writer — as I 
read his noble, I might almost say his holy ideas, 
I thought to myself, if every one in my country 
could and would do his work, how infinitely 
happier would the nation be ! How much less 
desirous should we be to wrangle about petty 
religious differences ! How much less of the 
energy of the nation would be wasted in con- 
temptible quarrels about creeds and formularies ; 
and how much more powerful should we be as a 
nation to achieve works of good, when, as this work 
would teach us to be, we were firmly bound to- 
gether by the bonds of a wise toleration.' 

Fawcett resented any narrow sectarian rules, and, 
though never irreligious, was out of sympathy with 
ceremonial and dogmatic detail. 

He himself really lived according to the creed 
that 'the world was his country, and to do good 
his religion.' He had probably little true under- 
standing of the depth of feeling that can be aroused 
by differences of creed and church. All men 
were alike to him, the Cathohc, the Jew, or the 
Agnostic ; and for Ireland as well as for England he 
fought for absolute equality of privilege for all. 

Even in his first Parliament, Fawcett had urged 
the removal of religious tests in Dublin, and had 



GLADSTONE PRIME MINISTER 179 

continued to do so in the various sessions that 
followed. His friend, Professor Cairnes, and he 
would discuss the matter. Fawcett studied it 
very thoroughly and pressed this reform in- 
cessantly. At last in 1873, when he had again 
brought in a Bill for abolishing tests and for certain 
other changes, he agreed to withdraw it in favour 
of a Government Bill if this latter should seem to 
him sufficiently satisfactory. 

The Government measure was introduced by Gladstone's 
Gladstone in a speech so persuasive that Fawcett ^^^^ 
said that ' if the decision could have taken place 
whilst the House was still under its spell, the Bill 
would have been almost unanimously carried.' 
But, after a careful examination, Fawcett found 
it impossible to give it his support. He was, how- 
ever, much moved by Gladstone's speech, and 
afterwards congratulated him most heartily on 
his eloquence. Gladstone's eagle eye glanced at 
him with a slight air of reproach as he replied, ' I 
could have wished that it had proved more per- 
suasive, sir.' 

The scheme of the Bill was very complicated. 
The various colleges in Ireland, Catholic and Pro- 
testant, were to be combined into one university. 
Instruction in subjects likely to be controversial 
was to be limited to the colleges themselves. 
These subjects were theology, moral philosophy, 
and modern history. On these the university 
Professors were not to lecture, nor was the uni- 
versity to examine in them. ' Gagging clauses ' 



i8o A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

Fawcett called these, and made against them the 
ablest speech of his Hfe. He lifted the debate out 
of the level plain of Parliamentary commonplace, 
and almost savagely closed with the weak argu- 
ments of his antagonists, and vanquished them. 
He contended that the proposed regulations would 
make ' the treatment of all subjects, even political 
economy, for example, hopeless ' and would seem 
a Government sanction of any criticism advanced 
by any religious authority. The separate colleges, 
each with their separate religious control, would 
perpetuate and deepen the bitter religious quarrels 
from which Ireland had suffered so long. 

When Fawcett felt that it was his mission to 
drive home an idea, so that it would penetrate and 
permeate unforgettably the minds of his auditors, 
he set out deUberately to pierce like a steel drill the 
rock of opposition. His relentless facts bored a 
hole in the wall of antagonism, which he then 
tried to fill with the dynamite of action. When 
embittered and roused to righteous anger, his words 
were like blows. Often his enemies gave in from 
sheer weariness, because their reasons were too 
black and blue to fight his logic any longer. 

Opposition seemed only to feed his triple flame 
of courage, resourcefulness, and energy. The 
ministers received but lukewarm support, and 
were unable to withstand Fawcett's onslaught. 
The Bill was defeated in division, and immediately 
Fawcett brought in his own measure. The Govern- 
ment agreed to support it if all changes but those 




HENRY FAWCETT 



GLADSTONE PRIME MINISTER i8i 

abolishing religious tests were omitted. Fawcett Fawcett's Bill 
consented, and at last, after many years struggle, ^"^* * 
his Bill became law. 

This defeat of the Ministry by some of its own 
supporters was one of the main causes which 
brought about its fall. Fawcett had dared that 
courageous thing, to wreck his own party rather 
than consent to a Bill of which he disapproved. 
He did more, for Gladstone retired from the leader- 
ship shortly after this, and largely because of the 
weak support of members of his own party. It 
says well for both that the two men worked to- 
gether later on several occasions. 

Fawcett was never a party man in the sense 
of submitting his judgment to the pohcy of his 
leaders ; but he kept their respect, for his honesty 
could not be questioned, and when he turned and 
rent his own party, it was because he felt it lacked 
that Liberalism for which it stood. The fact that 
his action was likely to stand in the way of his 
chance of office was a consideration which it would 
never occur to him to entertain. He desired ofhce, 
but as a better means of serving the people ; 
if office could not mean that to him, it meant 
nothing. 



SAVING THE PEOPLE'S 
PLAYGROUNDS 



'Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to the iron 
string. God will not have His work made manifest 
by cowards.' — Emerson. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE STOLEN COMMONS 

The Disappearance of the English Playgrounds and 
Commons — Fawcett's first Protest — The Annual En- 
closure Bill stopped by his energetic Action. 

Fawcett used to say that there was no part of his a Country- 
pubhc work on which he looked with so much Rescue, 
unalloyed satisfaction as on his work for the 
commons. Perhaps a few words show what a 
complicated question he had to deal with, and how 
great the need was for the strong and courageous 
action which he took in this matter. 

He would see the urgency as only those could 
see it whose knowledge of country life and country 
ways was drawn from the farming and labour- 
ing classes. He kept true to his early lessons 
and did not allow his path to be deviated by the 
many side issues in which these questions were 
involved. 

From the earliest times there had been in every 
parish in England a large tract of land held in Common 
common. Part of it was cultivated jointly by the 
villagers and part of it was kept as open common 
land, and all parishioners had the right to feed their 

185 



Lands. 



i86 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

beasts there, and to cut wood or furze, and similar 
privileges. 

This gave much independence to the simpler 
folk and added to their resources and com- 
forts, but it also made it impossible to farm the 
common lands by more modern and more pro- 
ductive methods. So there arose a movement for 
enclosing these lands and dividing them up among 
the different village inhabitants, to become their 
own individual property. As regards the lands 
farmed jointly, this course had many advantages 
provided that the distribution was made fairly. 
But when it came to the commons proper, the 
benefit was much more doubtful even from a 
wealth -giving point of view. As to the non- 
economic value of a common — its value as an 
open place for recreation and health -giving — 
this only began to be realised as the commons 
became few. 

Fawcett, in his first professional lectures (1864), 
mentions the evils arising from enclosures. 
No room for * He declared, from his own knowledge of the 
thePig!^*"^ agricultural labourer, that cottagers could no 
longer keep a cow, a pig, or poultry ; that the 
village greens had become extinct, and that the 
turnpike road was too often the only playground 
for the village children. 

* He doubted whether the enclosure of commons, 
involving the breaking up of pastures, had, in 
point of fact, permanently increased the wealth of 
the country ; but the wealth in any case was dearly 



THE STOLEN COMMONS 187 

purchased if purchased by a diminution of the 
labourers' comforts. The compensation paid to 
the poor commoner had generally been spent by 
the first receiver, whilst his descendants were 
permanently deprived of many of the little ad- 
vantages which might have helped to eke out their 
scanty resources.' 

The procedure whereby a common was enclosed 
was one that dealt very hardly on the poorer folk, 
and made it very difficult, if not impossible, for 
them to make their objections felt. The matter 
went before the Enclosure Commissioners, and they 
every year presented a Bill to Parliament recom- 
mending such enclosures as they had at that time 
approved. The Bill would be passed almost with- 
out investigation, as part of the routine work of 
Parliament. 

Fawcett appreciated from a child the blessings 
of open free tracts for fresh air and fun. He 
watched with distress and indignation the rights of 
the people to their woods and open spaces being 
put aside, their commons seized and fenced off, 
their forests appropriated and their venerable 
trees cut down — and all this without protest, nay 
by the consent of a Government which undertook 
to be the guardian of the people's interests. Their 
historic right in Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath, 
and many other places were ignored in mean 
schemes for appropriating the land and raising 
paltry sums by selling it as farm or building land, 
or by marketing the timber. Fawcett might have 



i88 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

chanted in his sonorous voice the following apt and 
classic verse : 

The law locks up the man or woman 
Who steals the goose from off the common, 
But lets the greater villain loose 
Who steals the common from the goose. 

Battle of The annual enclosure Bill, introduced in 1869, 

Common. submitted over six thousand acres for enclosure, 
of which only three acres were to be reserved for 
the public. In this area was included the beautiful 
common of Wisley. It chanced that a resident 
near Wisley, who was a member of Parliament, 
strongly objected to enclosures, and to this one in 
particular, and he drew the attention of the House 
to the case. The Minister in charge of the Bill 
agreed to withdraw Wisley and refer it to a select 
committee, but said, at the same time, that it 
would be obviously unfair to stop unopposed 
enclosures, and he proposed to proceed with the 
rest of the Bill. 

Fawcett, who joined in the debate, was made 
a member of this committee, but his interest and 
energy went further. The Wisley case had fixed 
his attention on the nature of the Bill itself, and he 
saw that there was every reason to suppose that 
similar but unnoticed abuses were occurring. The 
Bill had almost reached its final stage in the House 
of Commons, but Fawcett was not to be stopped. 
He gave notice that * upon the third reading he 
should move for a recommittal of the Bill in order 



THE STOLEN COMMONS 189 

that a better provision might be made for allot- 
ments.' This motion created a great outcry. 
Why this interference ? Parliament had been 
getting along most harmoniously with the Enclosure 
Commission. Why change this comfortable order 
of things and create delay and inconvenience to 
those interested in making enclosures ? Fawcett 
had a hearty contempt for this comfort and 
convenience at the expense of the poor. He 
continued his efforts to stop the passage of the 
Bill. 

The Government Whips, whose business it is to Outwitting 
get business done, tried to evade Fawcett's opposi- * ^ '^'^" 
tion by arranging for the Bill to be discussed at 
awkward times. They arranged for it to come on 
half an hour after midnight, after the main business 
of the sitting was finished. Night after night it 
would be put off on one excuse or another, and 
Fawcett and the small band of friends who sup- 
ported him would wait in vain. None the less, 
they took turns and tried to be always on guard, 
for they knew that their absence would be the signal 
for hurrying the Bill through. Fawcett used to 
tell this story with glee : one night, as he had a 
very bad cold, he sent a message to the Whips 
asking to have the motion postponed again as 
had been so frequently done before. He had no 
answer, but trusting that his request would be 
granted, he went home to bed. A friend who 
dropped in to see him suggested that it would be 
unwise to relax guard even for the night. Fawcett 



190 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

thereupon hurled on his clothes and arrived to find 
the House about to pass the obnoxious Bill. 

The wily Whip started ' like a guilty thing sur- 
prised,' and admitted good-naturedly the failure of 
his tactics, and gave a formal undertaking to defer 
the Bill then and to arrange for it to be brought 
on later at a reasonable hour. Then, at last, 
Fawcett moved his resolution, dwelt upon the in- 
justice to the labourer, of the absurdly small re- 
servations for public allotments, protested at the 
attitude of the speakers for the Government, who 
shirked all responsibility beyond confirming the 
action of the commissioners. On his motion a 
committee was appointed to consider the working 
of the present system, and the expediency of better 
provision for recreation and allotment grounds. 
Fawcett In Committee Fawcett opposed the existing 

tradUkniid^ systcm. The Enclosure Commissioners and their 
supporters were content with the doctrine, that 
' the final cause of an enclosure commission is 
naturally to enclose,' and considered it advan- 
tageous to get rid of common rights which 
obstructed a more profitable employment of the 
land. Surely, they claimed, it is a hardship to 
prevent the owners of any piece of property from 
distributing their various rights on terms upon 
which they all agree. Fawcett argued that the 
agreement was illusory. Country gentlemen and 
farmers had looked after themselves, but the 
cottager had been put off with some trifle, spent as 
soon as received. 



THE STOLEN COMMONS 191 

Fawcett was particularly delighted with the 
evidence given by Mr. J. Reed, parish clerk of withypooi 
Withypool. When asked how far people would 
have to go for an open space, the witness replied, 
' They could not find one for miles except they did 
go on the common.' ' Is there no common within 
reach of an ordinary walk ? ' * No, he would not 
want any more recreation by the time he came to 
any other common. The people say they will be 
as badly off as in a town.' ' Are there no fields 
where they can walk ? ' ' Yes, they can trespass, 
if they like that.' 

The committee's report, after vigorous dis- 
cussion, accepted the chief principles advocated 
by Fawcett ; ' Parliamentary scrutiny was to 
become real and searching.' Bills should be more 
carefully prepared in future. It was even admitted 
to be questionable whether enclosures were always 
beneficial. 

Thus was a first great battle won for the safety 
of the commons. Others had felt the wrong as 
well as Fawcett, and supported him loyally, but 
it was his bulldog tenacity and his doing the dis- 
agreeable thing that finally throttled the Annual 
Enclosures Bill and stopped the mechanical process 
by which so many harmful enclosures were made. 

Fawcett made a notable speech against this Bill. 
The late Sir Robert Hunter, who saw much of Sir Robert 
Fawcett at this time, says : ' Mr. Fawcett's memory 
was very remarkable, apart from the recognition of 
voices. I remember an instance of this which 



192 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

struck me very much. He was making a stand 
against the enclosure of rural commons ; the 
question arose whether certain enclosures which 
had been commenced should be carried out or 
abandoned. There were some twenty or thirty 
cases, and Mr. Fawcett in a speech to the House 
of Commons gave figured details of each case, the 
whole area of each common, the extent of the 
allotments for fields, for gardens and a host of 
other particulars. 
The Style But all his friends were not so appreciative. 

for the House. ^ 1 1 i t- 

Lord Courtney tells how rawcett on one occasion 
took a Liverpool man of little humour down to 
Cambridge for the Christmas dinner. In return 
for his hospitality the guest rewarded Fawcett by 
fearless and supercilious criticism of his method of 
speaking, saying, ' Fawcett, you haven't got the 
style for the House of Commons ! ' Fawcett 
accepted the criticism in good part and his friend 
undertook to show how to speak, rising to his 
feet and gesticulating dramatically and making 
himself greatly absurd. Fawcett, after a little 
good-natured listening, excused himself on the plea 
of an engagement, saying, ' Thanks ever so much. 
Edward,' indicating his guide, who was present, 
'is a first-rate reporter, and will tell me the rest of 
your speech when I return.' With which he flung 
gaily out of the room, leaving his instructor agape. 
Perhaps he had fled to go skating. His en- 
thusiasm for this sport was unquenchable. A 
Cambridge friend of those days writes : 



THE STOLEN COMMONS 193 

' Fawcett insisted that skating was best on the 
first day of a thaw. He would come to my room, 
calhng in his cheerful, loud voice, " Hullo, are you 
going skating ? " More than once I argued with 
him without avail that it was dangerous to skate 
when the ice was thinning. He was deaf to all 
reason, and would haul me out on the river, where 
he would skate ankle deep in water. Well I re- 
member my alarm once when I saw him — he was 
heading full tilt towards a big hole. I shouted to 
him to steer clear of it, myself horrified at his 
imminent danger. When he barely escaped the 
opening he called out cheerily. ** Oh, don't worry% 
it will be all right ! " Shod with his skates he was 
absolutely without fear.' 



N 



CHAPTER XX 

THE FIGHT FOR THE FOREST 

The Commons Preservation Society— The saving of 
Epping Forest — The Queen's Rights — The Lords of 
the Manors' Rights — The People's Rights. 

A SOCIETY had been founded in 1865, called the 
Commons Preservation Society, which had for 
object to defend the public rights in the commons 
round London. Two years later Fawcett joined 
their committee and attended their meetings 
sedulously. One of his first actions was to re- 
commend that the sphere of their operations be 
extended to the country at large. 
Epping He found them busy in the effort to save Epping 

Forest, which stretches some ten to thirty miles 
to the north-east of the city. It is one of the most 
beautiful forests of England. Old trees stand there 
that in their youth witnessed the hunting of Saxon 
kings. Epping Forest was for many centuries 
a favourite royal hunting-ground. Up to the 
time of Charles 11., kings followed the deer 
there in person. But after that time the Crown 
no longer protected the game or looked after the 
woodlands, and the district became waste land — 
subject only to certain rather vague rights of the 

194 



Forest. 



THE FIGHT FOR THE FOREST 195 

Crown, of the local lords of the manors, and of 
the commoners. 

In the nineteenth century the Crown thought to 
turn an honest penny out of Epping. .It sold its 
forestal rights over some four thousand acres, 
about half the area of the forest, to the neighbour- 
ing lords of the manors at an average price of £5 
an acre. These gentlemen now began gaily to 
enclose the land. The commoners were few and 
powerless, and the lords of the manors professed 
to have compensated them or received their 
consent, where they did not ignore them altogether. 
One landowner calmly ploughed up three hundred 
acres without consent of Crown or commons. 

But though much of the forest was lost in some 
places, in others it was successfully defended. For 
four years that part of the forest that is within the 
Manor of Loughton was saved by the courage and 
pubHc spirit of a labourer named Wilhngdale. By 
immemorial custom the men of that parish had 
the right of tree-lopping, and on St. Martin's Eve 
at midnight they used to meet and go into the 
forest, cut wood, and drag it to their homes. When 
the lord of this manor, who was also the rector 
of the parish, enclosed thirteen hundred acres, 
Willingdale and his two sons, on the St. Martin's 
Eve following, broke through the fencing and lopped 
and carried away their wood. For this assertion 
of their rights they were summoned before the local Prison for 
justices and sentenced to two months' hard labour. ^^^^ ioppi"g- 

The sentence roused great indignation in East 



196 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

London. The Commons Preservation Society took 
up the matter, and a fund was raised to fight 
the case in the law-courts on behalf of Willingdale. 

Willingdale himself had a hard time. Unless he 
continued to live in Loughton he had no right to 
bring his suit, but he could get no employment 
there, and was forced to accept a pension from the 
Commons Preservation Society. Even then he 
found it difficult to get a lodging in the village. 
He was more than once offered big bribes of money 
if he would abandon his suit. One son died in 
prison, and he himself died in 1870, but his pluck 
had saved the forest long enough for others to be 
found to take up the fight. 

It was during this litigation that Fawcett became 
actively interested in the case. He appeared as 
one of a deputation from the Commons Preserva- 
tion Society to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
and shared in the severe rebuke which that gentle- 
man administered to the deputation. 

This reception was enough in itself to set Fawcett 
to work. He proposed to move forthwith an 
Royal Rights addrcss to the Queen, urging that the Crown rights 
R^ghts.^^^^^ might be defended, and by this means the forest 
kept free for the recreation of the people. He felt 
that a clear statement of a sane and popular 
principle would force the Liberal party to choose a 
definite course as champion either of popular rights 
or private interests. 

In his determination to bring the whole matter 
thus before the public and challenge the Govern- 



THE FIGHT FOR THE FOREST 197 

ment policy, Fawcett stood quite alone. The 
best friends of the movement begged him to desist, 
believing he was inviting defeat, and would thus 
injure the cause, but he had a firmer belief in the 
strength of pubHc opinion. It was another proof 
of that far-sighted independence of judgment which 
his fellow-workers learned so heartily to respect. 

His influence on his friends deepened year by 
year. His personality is perhaps most felt in the 
strong impression he made on them. Professor 
Stewart, also an M.P., tells of Fawcett : ' He sat 
at times when we came to tell him things in his 
easy-chair with his hands holding the elbows of it, 
his face towards us, his lips a little parted, his 
whole physiognomy lit up with intelligence and 
interest, his mind evidently drawing before itself 
the picture of which we spoke, and the smile that 
was on his features playing even to his broad brow. 
Or again, when animated with his own clear mental 
vision, his whole frame eloquent, he spoke strong, 
incisive, direct words, looking through my very 
soul with his empty eyes.' 

He very rarely went about alone, but the late 
Sir Robert Hunter told of once journeying to 
London with him one evening. ' When we arrived 
at Waterloo, Fawcett asked me to put him into 
a cab, and refused to let me go with him, shout- 
ing "Good-bye" merrily as he drove off into the 
night. Notwithstanding his fearlessness he seemed 
to me so helpless, this blind giant all alone in a cab 
in London, utterly at the mercy of the cabman.' 



198 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



A friendly 
Cabby. 



Deer, yes. 
Picnickers, 
no ! 



But he had friends among the cabmen too, for 
once when he turned to pay a cabby his fare, the 
man utterly refused it with ' No, Mr. Fawcett, no, 
sir. You have done too much for the working 
man.' 

When his motion came on in the House, he re- 
viewed the whole question of Epping Forest and 
showed the value of the Crown rights as a protection 
of the people's rights. He stated that the Crown 
had sold its rights on four thousand acres for 
;^i8,6o3, i6s. 2d., so small an amount as to be 
negligible to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and 
a healthful means of enjoyment for the people had 
been destroyed. Ten times the sum might have 
been saved by abolishing a sinecure office, such as 
the Lord Privy Seal. This last a truly Fawcettian 
fling. 

The principal argument which he had to meet 
now was that ' the forest rights were relics of 
feudalism ; they were useful to keep up deer for 
the royal hunting. Now that the Queen did not 
want to hunt it would be unfair to keep them up 
for a different purpose.' A man may not put up a 
fence to keep out the Queen's deer, but he may 
put it up to restrain a picnic party of her subjects. 
The Queen might not make over her rights to the 
public, but must resign them to the lords of the 
manors. Fawcett (taking, I fear, a real and 
humorous satisfaction in his reply) answered, * If 
a right ceased when the original purpose became 
obsolete, what would become of the lord of the 



THE FIGHT FOR THE FOREST 199 

manor ? He had ceased to discharge any duties ; 
should he cease to have any rights ? ' 

Fawcett's motion was strongly supported. Mr. 
Gladstone showed a wider appreciation of the 
significance of the problem than other members of 
his Government. He conceded that Fawcett had 
demonstrated that it was the duty of Government 
to take up the question, and as the champions of 
the people to secure whatever was practical. He 
proposed a modification, accepted by Fawcett, and 
the motion was passed. 

This was a great triumph, but entire success was 
not yet assured. Government endorsed the policy 
of the Commons Preservation Society. The Prime 
Minister recognised that Fawcett's road was the 
right one to travel, but there were still many 
enemies who were to be won over to an appreciation 
of the people's rights. A compromise was pro- 
posed which seemed quite inadequate to the society. 
But the Government introduced a Bill on the lines 
of this so-called compromise which would have 
enclosed nearly all the forest and have left, perhaps, 
six hundred acres in various scattered plots to be 
reserved for public use. 

At once Fawcett gave notice of moving the An inept 
rejection of this inept document. For this and "^^p"^^- 
other technical reasons the Bill was dropped. But 
even its short life had shown its infirmities to such 
a degree that Government was too wise to let it 
reappear. 

The next year, 1871, the Commons Preservation 



200 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

Society was stirred to immediate action by a new 
danger. Notice was given that the most beautiful 
of the ancient trees in Epping, those of High 
High Beach. Beach, Were to be felled ! High Beach was a part 
of the forest in which there were no Crown rights. 
The timber belonged to the lords of the manors 
and the rights of the public seemed difficult to 
ascertain. The Commons Preservation Society 
sat in committee, and Fawcett suggested that a 
motion should be proposed in the House of 
Commons desiring that measures should be taken 
for keeping open those parts of the forest which 
had not been enclosed by consent of the Crown, 
or by legal authority. This ingenious phrasing, 
for all its complicated appearance, would have the 
simple and satisfactory effect of saving Epping 
Forest until such time as the House of Commons 
legislated further on the subject. Fawcett sug- 
gested that this motion should be brought forv\^ard 
by Mr. Cowper Temple, who, on account of his 
previous services and his less extreme views, was 
much better qualified to press the matter than 
himself. This was like Fawcett, thorough and 
direct, standing back to give another his place 
whenever it meant better service. 

Government opposed this resolution with all its 

force, but so strongly had the public feeling been 

roused that it was defeated by a majority of one 

hundred and one. 

The Hunting- Later in the session the Government appointed a 

Kings. ° Royal Commission. And then the City of London 



THE FIGHT FOR THE FOREST 201 

found out that it also had forestal rights, and took 
the matter into the law-courts. For eleven weary 
years more the battle went on. It was not till 
1882 that Queen Victoria went in person to Epping 
Forest to hand over five thousand acres of the old Five thousand 

, . 1 r 1 1 1 r acres secured 

huntmg-ground or her ancestors to the people or for the 
England. But the critical time had been in those ^^opie. 
first years before the public conscience was roused. 
And in those years Fawcett's persistence had made 
the after- work possible. 

By his brave common sense, and lucid justice 
and eloquence, Fawcett had won this great battle 
for the people for all time. In his article in the 
Fortnightly, the following November, he says : ' The 
few remaining commons are the only places where 
the people, except by sufferance, can leave the 
beaten pathway or the frequented high road.' 
' And yet this Government, so grand in its popular 
professions, so strong in its hustings denunciations 
of those who would divorce the people from the 
soil, used the whole weight of official influence to 
enclose the few commons that were left.' ' So 
anxious were they to pursue this policy of depriving 
the public and the poor of their commons that 
night after night the House was kept sitting to 
two or three o'clock in the morning in order to pass 
an Enclosure Bill,' 'and the Ministry, apparently 
willing to risk something more than reputation in 
the cause, were disastrously defeated by those who 
were anxious to preserve Epping Forest.' 

The Ministry had come to stigmatise him as 



202 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

' impracticable.' Yet the course which he obHged 
them against their will to follow was of vital im- 
portance to the country, and it seems as if the 
'impracticable' Fawcett, the blind Don Quixote, 
had not tilted in vain at his opponents. 



CHAPTER XXI 

FOR THE people's WOODS AND STREAMS 

Saving the Forests— 'The monstrous Nation' — Walking 
with Lord Morley — The Boat Race— Safeguarding the 
Rivers. 

Fawcett had the knack of saving time and getting 

the most out of it. One spring day when he was 

going to pay a promised visit, absent-mindedly he 

put his hand to his hair, which he found rather 

long. Discovering that he had five minutes to 

spare, he shouted in his cheerful loud voice to the 

cabby through the opening in the roof of the 

hansom : ' Stop at the first hairdresser's shop.' 

Arrived there he sprang out quickly and rushed in 

to the barber, exclaiming as he whizzed past him : 

* Cut off as much of my hair as you can in five The shearing 

minutes.' Literally following these directions with ° an. 

zealous enthusiasm, the man quickly left his victim 

absolutely shorn to the skull, so that when Fawcett 

put on his hat it was far too large for him. A few 

minutes later he was shown into the drawing-room 

at the very minute of his appointment. He felt 

extremely embarrassed and sheepish coming in his 

despoiled condition, but his hostess, rising to meet 

him, exclaimed with as much tact as concealed 

surprise : ' O Mr. Fawcett, what an improve- 

203 



204 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

ment ! I have never before been able to see the 
beautiful shape of your head.' So the hostess 
tempered the wind to the shorn statesman. There 
was sufficient truth for art in her flattery, as 
Fawcett's head was really of an unusually fine 
shape, massive, rugged — even beautiful. 
He loved to He loved to be read to, and he kept a separate 

be rea to. book for each friend who entertained him in this 
fashion. One day The Rhyme of the Duchess May 
was being read to him. In each stanza of the 
poem recurs the phrase ' Toll slowly.' The whole 
thing was admirably read — with pathetic emphasis 
on the refrain. One of the audience says : * We 
all thought that Fawcett was asleep, but to our 
amusement, when the reader had finished, he said 
enthusiastically, with his generous voice, " Thank 
you very much ; beautifully read, but don't you 
think that you might have left out that ' told 
slowly'?" 

He continued a frequent visitor at Salisbury, and 
always fitted in with the home ways. His parents 
had come to pass their closing year in a house in 
the Cathedral Close. Opposite the house there 
was a stretch of old wall, where before breakfast 
Fawcett used to walk quite by himself, enjoying 
a seclusion and peace such as was his in the court of 
his old Cambridge College. The gates of the close 
are shut at eleven o'clock every night. Miss 
Salisbury Fawcctt tclls the foUowing : ' As Henry liked to 
walk the last thing at night before going to bed, 
and as it was not always convenient for one of us 



Close. 




HENRY FAWCETT AND HIS FATHER 



THE PEOPLE'S WOODS AND STREAMS 205 

to accompany him, we arranged for him to go with 
the gate closer on his rounds. So regularly, when 
Harry was at home, the gate closer's voice would 
be heard at half-past ten, "I've come for Mr. 
Harry," and together they would sally forth and 
lock the ancient gates about the close.' The 
scheme worked admirably to the entire satisfac- 
tion of Fawcett, and to the delight of the watch- 
man, who, like the rest of the world, found Fawcett 
a stimulating and cheering companion. He 
awakened the seeing man's interest in the beauty 
of the cathedral which they passed in their nightly 
patrol, and often asked if a different planet had yet 
appeared on the horizon, if the moon could be seen 
over the church tower, or if the clouds were obscur- 
ing the stars. 

Though he had passed his childhood on the edge 
of the New Forest, it is doubtful if Fawcett ever The New 
saw its beauties excepting with his mind's eye and peTir^^" 
by the help of his friends' description. 

In the seventies he was fond of going there and 
combining the comfort and joy that he always found 
in his walk by the great trees with a fishing ex- 
pedition at Ibbesley. Here he liked to stay with 
his fisher friend Tizard and his good wife, sharing 
their homely meals and chat ; the place abounded 
in birds whose singing delighted him. It was 
here that he caught the huge salmon that graced 
the table at his father's and mother's golden 
wedding feast. 

On these fishing expeditions he heard of the 



2o6 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

mania for money-making that threatened to rout 
the ancient spirit of romance which for centuries 
had Hved in the seclusion of the great oaks and 
beeches. One enterprising surveyor said that the 
old wood should be cleared * smack smooth.' The 
patrician ancient trees were being replaced by 
symmetrical lines of Scotch firs planted for sacrifice 
by fire or for building purposes. Fawcett in 
answer to inquiry was informed that the woods 
would not be cleared till the House of Commons 
had come to a division on the treatment of open 
spaces. Not content with this rather vague 
answer, he moved that ' no ornamental timber 
should be felled, and no timber whatever should 
be cut except for necessary purposes, whilst 
legislation was pending.' This resolution came 
none too soon and 'stood between the forest and 
the axe ' for six years. The official point of view 
was that the term ' public ' was misused ; it really 
meant taxpayers, not tourists, nor even the neigh- 
bouring residents. The official duty consisted in 
making an income for the nation and making the 
most of the property of the Heir Apparent, so that 
he might make a better bargain on the next settle- 
ment of the Civil List. No resolution of the House 
of Commons could prevent the commissioner in 
charge of the New Forest from performing his 
duties, which were similar to those of a trustee of a 
settled estate. 
The Forest— Fawcctt received signed petitions protesting 
Health and against the devastation of the forest. In 1875 



THE PEOPLE'S WOODS AND STREAMS 207 

the Government, this time a Conservative Govern- 
ment, appointed a select committee on the con- 
dition of the New Forest. Fawcett gave evidence 
and spoke forcibly. * The forest should be pre- 
served as a national park. Any money which 
could be made by its enclosure was not worth 
considering in comparison with the effects upon 
the health, happiness, and morality of the people. 
Even arguing the matter from a purely economical 
point of view, the influence of the forest on the 
health and artistic faculties of the people had a far 
greater money value than that of the mere timber.' 
His comment of the effect of the beauty of the 
forest on the * artistic faculties of the people ' must 
have been peculiarly impressive ; that a blind man 
could see so true, plead so wisely and far-seeingly 
for the best influence that his fellows could get from 
the right of those historic glades. Fawcett sug- 
gested that these honest, if penny-wise, stewards 
could ease their consciences by accepting the 
liberal compensation which the nation would be 
glad to pay. It was a mere superstition to feel 
that though neither the Crown nor the nation 
wished it, there was need to treat the forest as it 
would be treated by a timber merchant. He 
wisely pointed out that the Secretary of the 
Treasury had four years before used the same 
arguments to good purpose on behalf of the 
Thames Embankment Gardens. The committee 
speedily reported, and an Act was passed to pre- 
serve the ancient woods, and stop destructive en- 



208 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



Fawcett 

versus 

Ruskin. 



' The mon- 
strousNotion. 



closures, and the Verderer's Court was reconstituted, 
so as to represent the commoners more effectually. 

It is when dwelling on this fight of Fawcett's 
for beauty versus money that it is amusing to 
realise that he was once challenged by Ruskin to 
a public debate — Fawcett to defend the political 
economy of his day against Ruskin 's charge that 
it was radically opposed to Christianity. Fawcett 
wisely realised that they would have no common 
meeting-ground and refused to enter the lists. 

The general questions of enclosures had still to 
be settled. The old method had been stopped for 
all time in Fawcett's Battle of Wisley Common, 
but no new machinery had been substituted. Bills 
were brought in two or three times, but failed 
to win sufficient support to be carried. In 1876 
Lord Cross, the Home Secretary, brought in a Bill 
which showed a distinct advance in public opinion. 
Nevertheless, it did not satisfy the Commons 
Preservation Society. Next, the chairman of the 
society, Mr. Shaw Lefevre, now Lord Eversley, 
moved a resolution embodying the enactment of 
provisions and safeguards. The Bill was supported 
by a speaker who at the same time attacked what 
he chose to call ' the monstrous notion,' i.e. that 
the inhabitants of large towns had a right to wander 
over distant commons as they pleased. Fawcett, 
who also supported the Bill in a vigorous speech, 
swooped down, seized this ' monstrous notion ' 
and held it aloft for admiration and support, and 
contended that the commons were a great and 



THE PEOPLE'S WOODS AND STREAMS 209 

valuable possession for the people of the entire 
country.' He had again to insist that the bill 
did not adequately protect the labourers nor pro- 
vide sufficient security against a ruthless enclosure 
of commons. He pointed out that ' under the old 
Enclosure Commission, 5,500,000 acres had been 
added to the estates of great proprietors, whilst 
villagers by the hundred had lost their rights of 
pasture, and now found it difficult to provide milk 
for their children. Yet the commission which had 
used this procedure was still to be trusted.' * The 
worst and most mischievous of all economies,' he 
declared, * was that which aggrandised a few, and 
made a paltry addition to the sum-total of wealth 
by shutting out the poor from fresh air and lovely 
scenery.' The bill passed through the committee, 
doggedly, though not very successfully, opposed by 
Fawcett and his friends. 

Lord Eversley and Fawcett succeeded later in 
amending the procedure to be followed by the 
Enclosure Commissioners. The Commissioners 
were instructed that they must have proof that 
any proposed enclosure should be of real benefit 
to the neighbourhood as well as to private interests. 
Furthermore, every enclosure scheme had to be 
submitted to a standing committee of the House 
of Commons of which Fawcett was one of the 
first members. 

The unfailing charm of Fawcett's home life was charm of 
a constant delight and rest to him. Mrs. Fawcett's "°"'^- 
share in his career was of the greatest possible 

o 



210 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

moment. Their only child Philippa began to be 
a source of great pleasure, and she enjoyed being 
with her father on his country expeditions as much 
as he delighted in having her with him. 

Declaring firmly that he believed in at least 
eleven hours' skating, this serious statesman would 
often ponder deeply, as he thoughtfully rubbed 
his blue glasses and replaced them on his nose, 
how with ingenuity it would be possible to con- 
trive to fit in another hour on the ice. He not 
only skated by himself, depending only on the 
voice of his companion to steer him, but he insisted 
that his wife, daughter, secretary, and two maids 
should all turn out to have a good time with him. 
Only the cook, on the uncontrovertible score of old 
age, was excused. 

Little Philippa greatly enjoyed accompanying 
her father, and whistling in order to guide him. 
When she was about nine years old she had re- 
turned from a wonderful skate, when she had 
steered him in the customary fashion. She told 
her mother all about it and what fun they had 
had, on a particularly difficult route, her father de- 
pending solely on her piping to guide him. ' And 
what did you whistle ? ' asked the mother. ' Oh, 
just " Gentle Jesus," ' came the prompt reply. 

Perhaps it is not amiss to indicate here the 
complete control that this small person exercised 
over her giant father. At this period of her life 
she had been imbued by her nurse with an intense 
devoutness. One Sunday morning he was singing 



THE PEOPLE'S WOODS AND STREAMS 2 1 1 

to himself : it is only proper to say that the word Hymns, 
singing is not an exact term, as all his friends and 
family are agreed that he was incapable of pro- 
ducing melody or sweet noises. His tiny daughter 
popped her head in at the crack of the door, saying 
solemnly : ' You mustn't sing, it 's Sunday ! ' 
* Are you sure ? ' asked Fawcett. ' Wait,' was the 
answer ; closing the door his mentor disappeared, 
doubtless to consult with the nurse who had filled 
her with so much theological technique. Again 
the child appeared at the crack in the door, saying 
briefly : ' If it 's hymns you may, if it isn't you 
mayn't,' and the singing ceased abruptly ! 

Open spaces, especially those near the big towns. The sanctity 
had in the railway companies another and most spacel'^ 
powerful enemy. It was so much easier to take 
a railway across a common than through the 
neighbouring enclosed land, that there arose a 
serious risk that the commons though at last 
secured for the people, would still be despoiled of 
their freshness and beauty. Fawcett was quick 
to perceive this, and to try to save the open spaces 
from such invasions of their sanctity. He was 
characteristically amused once by the suggestion 
of some more prudent members of the Commons 
Preservation Society that he might weaken their 
position by failure. It was not by fear of defeat 
that he so often succeeded in turning defeat into 
victory. He never hesitated in his attack. Even 
when Postmaster-General he voted against his 
colleague, Mr. Chamberlain, the President of the 



212 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

Board of Trade, on a question of railway encroach- 
ment on Wimbledon Common. 

It is a beautiful thing for all of us who have the 
privilege of enjoying the glory of the commons 
and forests of England to appreciate that that 
pleasure has been kept for us, and for countless 
others for all time, largely by the valiant fight 
and generous labours of a man who, though he 
loved them as he loved light, freedom and justice, 
and gave part of his life to save them, could only 
see them through the eyes of others. 
Lord Moriey Lord Morley tells of Fawcett on these lands 
a^wriif^^*^^" which he saved for the poor. Fawcett had been 
walking on Lord Morley's arm over the Wimbledon 
Commons, with that vigour and enjoyment in the 
exercise which he invariably found. They paused 
on a hill. Lord Morley, impressed with the un- 
usual loveliness of the sunset and its ineffable melan- 
choly, was startled to hear Fawcett beside him 
ask wistfully : ' Morley, is the sunset very beauti- 
ful ? ' ' Yes,' was the answer. * Ah, I thought 
so,' came the comment before a long silence, in 
which the blind man seemed to be taking in the 
exquisite scene spread before his unseeing eyes. 

We know how Fawcett's deep love of nature and 
beauty was a strong factor of his very being. He 
loved the forest and the hills, the fields and the 
sides, and above all the rivers. 

Until nearly the end of his life, Fawcett rarely 
missed the Oxford and Cambridge rowing con- 
tests. It was a matter of course to see him ' look- 



THE PEOPLE'S WOODS AND STREAMS 213 

ing over ' the crew of the college ' eight ' and ex- 
pressing his opinion frankly about its fitness, or 
eagerly ' watching ' a race. He followed the Following the 
University boat race on one occasion in a launch, 
and in the keenest excitement continually asked 
his friend, 'How are they going now, Morgan ? 
How near are they now ? ' 

The race gained much zest for Fawcett from the 
motion of the tug from which he watched it, from 
the noise of the water lapping against the side of 
the boat, the splash of the oars, the occasional 
spray dashed in his face as the little ship darted 
to hasten its course by benefiting in an opening 
in the crowd of craft. The cheers of the spectators, 
the calling of the coxswains to the straining crews, 
and even the occasional tooting of an unmannerly 
tug, all gave colour to the picture for the blind 
man. The river's fascination perhaps even in- 
creased for him after he could not see it. 

When the Thames needed a protector to safe- Safeguarding 
guard its loveliness, it was the blind man who 
eagerly urged that an organisation, similar to the 
Commons Preservation Society, should be formed 
to protect the river, and it was through his advice 
that a Select Committee with this object was later 
appointed. He also took occasion to support 
Lord Biyce in his efforts to abolish the system 
which hampered the public in their enjoyment of 
the beauties of the Scottish Highlands. 

Stephen speaks of his readiness to refuse pro- 
minence if he thought that others could serve 



214 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

better than he, of his eagerness * to meet the 
strength of the opposite case,' to see his opponent's 
point of view and to judge it generously ; he 
dwells on the great interest he took in private 
life in considering impartially and thoughtfully 
his friends' problems, so that his advice to them 
was of unusual value. The whole chapter of this 
fight for the rights of those who were least able to 
fight for themselves, sustained and led by a man 
who could not see or enjoy, saving vicariously, 
what he was fighting for, is as heroic as any in 
history. He faced the danger of losing his hard- 
won position, and often alone made the decision 
to act against the advice of his friends and his own 
interests and to stand for the right. In his simple 
direct plea for justice he never rested until he got 
what was the people's due, and what must remain 
for all time a living monument to his singleness 
of purpose and chivalrous bravery. 



THE MEMBER FOR INDIA 



' Let thy dauntless mind 
Still ride in triumph over all mischance.' 

Shakespeare. 

' Not from without us only, from 
Within can come upon us light.' 



CHAPTER XXII 

WHAT INDIA PAID 

India pays for English Hospitality — Royal English 
generosity to India paid for by India — How to deal with 
an angry opponent — Indian Finance and the poor Ryot 
— Gratitude from India — How Fawcett prepared his 
Speeches. 

The purpose of this chapter is not to comment The Sultan's 
on the condition of India, and of its government * * 
in Fawcett's time, but through these new labours 
of his to know him better, to show how gallantly 
he fought for a poor remote people, and how 
poignantly he brought their needs before their 
English fellow-subjects. It was a work he was 
peculiarly fitted to do. His vigorous action, his 
picturesque personality, his gift for singling out 
a weak point, perhaps trifling in itself, and making 
it a vivid symbol of wrong policy, all helped 
Englishmen unfamiliar with India to realise better 
their responsibilities to a country in whose destinies 
they were so closely concerned. 

Fawcett once said that in his undergraduate 
days he had picked up a book on India which 
attracted him to the subject. His comments in 
his schoolboy essays have been noted. It is 
possible that Mill and other friends of his closely 



2i8 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

connected with India stimulated his interest. He 
referred to the country a good deal in his Manual 
of Political Economy. 

He first dealt with Indian affairs publicly in 
1867, and in most characteristic fashion. The 
Sultan of Turkey was about to visit England, and 
it was proposed to give a ball in his honour at the 
India Office. Fawcett demanded who was to foot 
the bill. He was told that India was to pay for 
this courtesy offered to the Sultan by the British, 
because the Sultan had been courteous in the 
matter of telegraphic communication between 
India and Europe. 

Though Mill urged Fawcett not to protest, as 
there were greater abuses to be found, Fawcett 
could not quiet his resentment at this unfair dis- 
tribution of the burden. Had not England bene- 
fited equally by the telegraphic communication, 
and should it not at least pay equally ? So, when 
a motion was made for the list of invitations, with 
the usual Parliamentary pleasantries about the 
unfair selection of guests, Fawcett rose with true 
reluctance to strike a discordant note. He urged 
that the really important question was to de- 
termine by what justice the Secretray for India 
India pays could tax the people of India for this entertain- 
Hos^UaiUy. meut. It might be proper for the officials 
themselves to give the entertainment. But why 
should the toiling peasant pay for it ? At that 
very time there was famine in India, and the 
Indian press complained of the slowness of relief 



WHAT INDIA PAID 219 

measures. It would have new occasion for 
sarcasm, when a part of the much-needed Indian 
revenue was voted for an entertainment of smart 
folk in London. 

His protest against this ' masterpiece of mean- 
ness,' as he afterwards called it, had little effect 
for the time being. But it aroused the attention 
of many in India, and began to make known to 
them the man whom they learned to call almost 
affectionately the ' Member for India.' 

When presenting a petition to the House of 
Commons from European residents and natives of 
India, who complained of the expenditure on pubHc 
works and asked for greater economy, Fawcett A" insolent 

, , . . 1 T ,• 1 • Meddler. 

moved that a commission be sent to India to obtain 
evidence on the spot — a motion that he afterwards 
withdrew. During the debate arising out of his 
motion, he was attacked with such asperity and 
lack of civility by one of the Under Secretaries of 
State, that it aroused the protest of other members. 
Fawcett was content to reply with a very charac- 
teristic maxim. ' Five years' experience in the 
House,' he said, ' had taught him that a member 
was always right in bringing forward a question, 
when the fact of his bringing it forward caused the 
minister concerned to lose his temper.' On another 
occasion the same antagonist warned Fawcett that 
his love of competition was becoming a fetish. 
But Fawcett smilingly retaliated, ' Beware of the 
fetish of officialism.' Good advice for many ! 
Fawcett's stand from the first was taken so 



220 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



Supporting a 
family on 
fourpence 
halfpenny a 
day. 



surely and firmly, that his ground could not be 
cut from under him. His success was merely a 
question of work and time. Part of his power lay 
in his frank realisation of his own limitations. 

He had no special knowledge of Indian religion 
and customs, and was not competent to judge 
questions of internal policy. But the financial 
relations between England and India, as well as 
the methods of dealing with finance in India itself, 
were well within the compass of his clear mind. 
With these he proposed to deal exhaustively. He 
knew whether the balance-sheets shown by Indian 
statesmen were intelligible or not, whether charges 
made to India were just, and he set himself with a 
will to study these questions. And to them he 
knew how to give a most intimately personal touch. 
He was an untra veiled man, and lived within the 
isolation of his blindness. But he had the great 
gift of realising habitually the existence of the 
world beyond his experience. He made England 
understand that India is no rich country from the 
Arabian Nights, but a poor country, where the ryot, 
the peasant of India, had but fourpence halfpenny 
a day to keep himself and his family, where taxes 
were increased only with great hardship to the poor, 
and where of all places money must not be wasted. 

In 1870, in a long and technical speech, he 
criticised the Indian Budget. He complained 
that it was brought on so late in the session that 
there was no time for proper discussion, and urged 
that a committee on Indian finance should be 



WHAT INDIA PAID 221 

appointed. In this speech, which showed his care- 
ful study of the whole Budget, he singled out one 
item for especial scorn. The Queen's second son, 
the Duke of Edinburgh, had recently journeyed 
through India, and had distributed royal gifts 
amounting in value to ;^io,ooo. These had been 
paid for out of the Indian revenues, that is to say, 
by the Indian taxpayers themselves ! 

The Prime Minister agreed that the Indian 
Budget should be presented earlier in the session, 
and the next year adopted Fawcett's proposal to 
appoint a committee on Indian finance. It sat 
for four years, and Fawcett was a hard-working 
member of it, and a most effective one. 

The committee, urged by Fawcett, asked for 
native witnesses, and two Hindoos were sent to 
England to give evidence, and their expenses were 
paid by the Government. 

Mr. Nadabhai Naoroji, one of them, said that 
he wrote a letter telling of the evidence which he 
had to give, and then appeared before the Finance 
Committee. The chairman was not sympathetic, 
and made things as uncomfortable as possible for 
him. But when Fawcett, with whom Naoroji had 
discussed matters previously, undertook the ex- 
amination, by a series of apt questions he brought 
out all the distinguished Hindoo had to say. Mr. 
Naoroji adds : ' This was an instance of the justice 
and fearlessness with which he wanted to treat 
this country. As I saw him pleading our cause, I 
felt awe and veneration as for a superior being.' 



222 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

Grateful In Miss Maria Fawcett's dining-room there 

TndS^^^ ^°'^ hangs at this day a long hand-written document, 
with a beautifully illuminated gold and coloured 
border. It was sent to her brother from a remote 
city in India in 1873, to thank him for the work 
he had done. Too long to quote in full, a sentence 
from it may show how Fawcett was regarded in 
India. ' We view with feelings of inexpressible 
delight your efforts to enlighten your countrymen 
of the wants and grievances of the millions of 
Her Majesty's subjects living in a country so far 
from the seat of government, and our feeling of 
admiration is heightened into that of reverence 
on learning that you are labouring in this cause 
of philanthropy under great disadvantages, among 
which the great physical disability which Providence 
has pleased to impose upon you is much to be 
regretted.' 

Distinguished now as an able critic on Indian 
finance, Fawcett had an extensive correspondence 
with residents of India, and with members of the 
Indian Civil Service, and neglected no opportunity 
to increase his knowledge of Indian aff'airs. 

Appreciative resolutions were sent to him from 
many native Indian associations. At a meeting 
in Calcutta an address was voted to him and also 
one to ' the Mayor of Brighton thanking the con- 
stituency for returning such a worthy representative 
and disinterested friend of India.' He was fre- 
quently begged to present petitions stating the 
grievances of the native and non-official community. 



WHAT INDIA PAID 223 

He helped privately, as well as publicly, as 
many a poor Indian student or petitioner came 
to know. When, however, Fawcett was urged 
to represent the grievances of certain Indian 
rulers, he refused, saying quaintly that ' he was 
too poor a man to have anything to do with 
princes.' 

Mr. Justice Scott said, speaking of the ideal for 
which Fawcett worked : * It is not enough for us 
Englishmen to say that we have given to India 
order, peace, security and justice, roads, railroads, 
and other material benefits of Western civilisation, 
but it should be our duty to ourselves and in co- 
operation with the people of India in the great task 
of education, private, social and political, never to 
rest content till every individual of the teeming 
masses of India can take an intelligent part as a 
citizen in the management of their own concerns. 
This is a great idea. It may seem the Utopian dream 
of an optimist. Mr. Fawcett was no doubt an An Optimist. 
optimist.' 

Fawcett most powerfully influenced people by 
his speeches. His appearance was arresting and 
interesting, while his brave disregard of his blind- 
ness claimed instant sympathy and admiration. 
His voice, which was unusually powerful, softened 
in tone with years, and his language grew less 
severe ; he uttered each word clearly, and what he 
said was clearly thought out. What he wanted 
was never for himself. What he fought for was 
invariably to help some one less fortunate, less 



224 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

free, less happy, than the bhnd man who pleaded 
so earnestly. 

He delivered two speeches in 1872 and 1873 
on the Indian Budgets of those years which an 
adversary said ' he considered to be the most re- 
markable intellectual efforts he had ever heard.' 
Of course Fawcett, unlike other speakers, had no 
notes to help him, yet he gave an exposition of 
complex questions with a clearness which might 
have raised the envy of the most accomplished 
Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

How Fawcett The Way he prepared his speeches is interesting. 

SpeeclTes. ^^ First, \ie would master the vital facts and figures 
he wanted. Then he would press into his service 
some friend well up on the subject with which he 
wished to deal, and together they would go over 
the ground until Fawcett felt that the facts were 
arranged so as to express most clearly and pithily 
his contention. 

Lucid arrangement helped his memory. His 
object was primarily to be clear, to say a thing as 
well as he could. He did not hesitate to repeat the 
same illustrations and statements, and paid little 
attention to rhetoric, epigram or elegance. He 
wished to hammer certain leading principles into 
people's heads, and he did this so effectively that 
they stuck there, and he pressed his points so vividly 
and insistently that he made his audiences, no 
matter where he found them, usually become his 
supporters, and even workers for his policy. 

On one occasion Fawcett spoke on India for 




Photo. Mansell 



HENRY FAWCETT 
From a painting by Sir Hubert von Herkomer 



WHAT INDIA PAID 225 

nearly two hours. He had the House absolutely 
in his hand the whole of that time, and never once 
had to hark back. The figures that he dealt with 
were exceedingly complicated and numerous. Later 
an M.P. congratulated him and expressed his 
surprise at his wonderful memory. Fawcett, with 
his habitual modesty, said, 'There is nothing strange 
about it. You know I see the thing mentally as I 
suppose you see whatever you are looking upon 
now ; really that is the difiference.' The M.P. 
replied, ' Yes, but it doesn't account for it at all. 
I see and forget — you see and don't forget, there 's 
the difference.' 

A Cambridge professor said of Fawcett when he 
began to make those remarkable speeches on Indian 
affairs : * We, I think, were mainly struck with the 
extraordinary intellectual feats that they were for 
a man under his calamity ; but the effect produced 
in India was of a different and pro founder kind. 
There was the sense of the largeness of heart of the 
statesman who had known suffering, and a gratitude 
for his broad sympathy with all whom he could Sympathy 
protect against what he conceived to be oppres- l^°J^ Suffer- 
sion of any kind.' 

He did not hesitate to speak on Indian affairs 
to his constituency, and to ask of them their sym- 
pathy and interest. At a meeting in Brighton he 
said that the most trumpery question ever brought 
before Parliament, a wrangle over the purchase of No time in 
a picture or a road through a park excited more for*^!',^™*^"^ 
interest than the welfare of the many millions of 

p 



226 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

our Indian fellow-subjects. Constituencies were 
said to take no interest in the subject. They 
would be some day forced to take an interest, if 
affairs were neglected in the future as they had 
been in the past. * The people of India have not 
votes ; they cannot bring so much pressure to bear 
upon Parliament as can be brought by one of our 
great railway companies ; but with some con- 
fidence I believe that I shall not be misinterpreting 
your wishes if, as your representative, I do what- 
ever can be done by one humble individual to render 
justice to the defenceless and powerless.' 

That last sentence could be taken as his policy 
and motto through life. Could there be a more 
valiant one for a blind man, or for any one fighting 
against great odds for the right ? * I do whatever 
can be done by one humble individual to render 
justice to the defenceless and powerless.' He does 
not limit whom or where. There are no limita- 
tions. That they are defenceless and powerless 
is all the recommendation which they need to 
claim his warmest interest and ceaseless effort to 
help them to find the way out of their misery. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE ' ONE MAN WHO CARED FOR INDIA ' 

Defeated at Brighton — Spectacles and the Man — Elected 
for Hackney. 

In Spite of many warnings that his Indian poHcy Effect of 
would be unpopular, his adherence to his high ideal j^dfa^^^^ '" 
of a truly Imperial citizenship proved a good 
campaign asset, and Fawcett's constituents were 
proud of him, and absorbed in his expositions of 
Indian affairs. 

Notwithstanding that he lost his seat at Brighton 
at the next general election, he was soon in the 
House again, representing another constituency. 
The prominence of his position in the House of 
Commons and out of it was much enhanced by 
the power of his Indian speeches. 

His popularity in Cambridge was unquestioned. 
On his return to residence there, his home was a 
merry meeting-place for his many friends old and 
new. His original ways were a byword. He once 
began a new acquaintanceship in this fashion. 
Shaking hands warmly with a young student who 
had just been introduced, Fawcett said jovially, 
' What do you do — ride, or row or fish ? I 
smoke ! ' 

227 



228 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

In speaking of Fawcett, the present head Master 
of Trinity used these words : * We all had a venera- 
tion for Fawcett, and loved to see the way he 
won every one. A friend of all of ours with whom 
Fawcett stayed tried us very much by insisting 
that all his guests should go to bed by ten o'clock. 
One of them vowed that " he'd be hanged if he 
would go to bed at ten o'clock." We were greatly 
relieved and amused that when Fawcett appeared 
on the scene, his conversation so completely 
charmed his host that it was impossible to get him 
to bed until long after midnight.' 

When a vacancy occurred in the Mastership of 

Trinity Hall, Fawcett was asked to stand, and 

though he retired from the candidature in favour 

Mastership of of Sir Henry Maine, it is an interesting evidence of 

Trmity Hall, p^^^ett's closc iutcrcst in his old college that no 

new interests could weaken. 

At this time his chief exercise seems to have been 
riding. A friend who often accompanied him gives 
this description of one adventurous morning ride : 
' His riding was like the driving of Jehu. He was 
entirely fearless, seemed to know all the road, the 
turnings, the signposts, and the houses, where the 
turf began that was good to go on, and where the 
horse must be allowed to walk. 
Spectacles ' We Were going together at a moderate pace on 

and the Man. j^-g fayourite road. I was a yard in front; 
suddenly I heard a noise as of a fall, and looking 
back saw to my horror Fawcett lying on the ground, 
and his horse standing quietly by. How it 



Sunset. 



' ONE MAN WHO CARED FOR INDIA ' 229 

happened I don't know. I jumped down in terror, 
but was soon reassured by Fawcett calling out in 
his natural voice, * Just look for my spectacles, will 
you ? ' When I had helped him up and brought 
him to his horse, he remounted without the least 
appearance of flurry or alarm. He explained to 
me as we cantered on, that he thought that in case 
of a fall, he was in less danger than a seeing man, 
as he did not attempt to move or struggle. He 
seemed to think no more of his fall, beyond express- 
ing a wish that I should not speak of it at home, 
and thus cause alarm and nervousness when he 
was riding again.' 

This courage is the more remarkable in view of Enjoying the 
the fact that Fawcett once said : ' The happiest 
moments I spend in my life are when I am in the 
companionship of some friend who will forget that 
I have lost my eyesight, who will talk to me as if I 
could see, who will describe to me the persons I 
meet, a beautiful sunset, or scenes of great beauty 
through which we may be passing. For so wonder- 
ful is the adaptability of the human mind, that 
when for instance some scene of great beauty has 
been described to me, I recall that scene in after 
years, and I speak about it in such a manner that 
sometimes I have to check myself and consider for 
a moment whether the impression was produced 
when I had my sight or was conveyed by the de- 
scription of another.' 

It is not conceivable that the man who so 
thoroughly saw through the vision given to him by 



230 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

others, could have been deficient in the power to 
imagine vividly, acutely, all possible dangers. It 
meant a very deliberate courage to overcome all 
slowness and hesitancy — to gallop alone, trusting 
entirely to his horse to save him from, may be, 
serious collisions. Yet, so complete was Fawcett's 
self-mastery that he thrust fear utterly behind him, 
and found only hearty, high-spirited joy in his 
outings. 
fiackney. This same courage stood him in good stead in 

A model i i • • o i • i i i • 

campaign. the general election m 1874, which resulted in a 
great victory for the Conservatives. In Brighton 
both the Liberal candidates were thrown out, 
though Fawcett polled forty-nine more votes than 
before. Within six weeks he was again an M.P., 
this time enthusiastically elected for Hackney ; 
and the management of his election for that borough 
was so inexpensive that it was long cited as a model 
of electioneering efficiency and economy. 

The Indian papers spoke strongly of his ' unique 
position,' and a fund of ;^400 was raised and trans- 
mitted to England to pay the expenses of another 
contest. It arrived too late, but went towards the 
expenses of the contest at Hackney in 1880. 
Another sum of ;^350 was then raised in India, which 
was placed in the hands of trustees with a view to 
a future election, and in due time was devoted to 
some purpose connected with India. 

Fawcett's first speech to his Hackney constituents 
was delivered in March. What he said there, then 
and later, was distinguished by his fearless and 



' ONE MAN WHO CARED FOR INDIA ' 231 

frank adherence to what were considered unpopular 
principles. He denounced what he deemed the 
unworthy competition between Gladstone and 
Disraeli, saying that when the former announced 
that in case of his election he would repeal the 
Income Tax, the latter promptly announced that 
he would do the same. Fawcett considered that 
neither could carry out this promise, and that it 
was merely a discreditable bid for votes. He said 
that he would continue in his efforts for India, then 
threatened anew by famine. 

The Saturday Review, not usually favourable to 
his party, hoped for his return as the ' one man,' 
out of official circles, who cared for India. The 
Times said * he offended publicans by refusing to The nvtes. 
use their houses as committee rooms ; he offended 
the advocates of the Permissive Bill by declaring 
his resolution to vote against it ; he offended 
shopkeepers by his zeal in favour of the co-operative 
movement ; he offended working men by his oppo- 
sition to the latest movement for limiting the 
hours of labour of adult women ; he offended old- 
fashioned Liberals, and Liberals who are getting 
old-fashioned, by his persistent advocacy of reforms 
that had not come within the range of their educa- 
tion when they were young ; and Liberals of 
a later growth remembered how often Fawcett 
had found himself unable to acquiesce in Mr. 
Gladstone's policy and plans. Yet he must have 
secured the support of men of all these sections, 
who concurred in sending him to Padiament, be- 



232 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

cause they believed that his presence there would 
be advantageous, in spite of errors of opinion which 
each section in turn lamented.' 

His short absence between his defeat at Brighton 
and his fresh appearance as the representative for 
Hackney was sincerely regretted in the House of 
Commons on all sides. Warm friends missed his 
genial personality and the jovial meetings at his 
seat, whence many merry stories and much gossip 
emanated. Those who saw Fawcett casually found 
it difficult to believe that he was bUnd. It 
was his unfailing habit to turn to the person to 
whom he was speaking as if he saw them. He 
knew his way about the House of Commons so 
well that he was quick and sure in all his move- 
ments. He would cross the floor of the House and, 
bowing to the Speaker, take his seat with familiar 
assurance. His father used often to come up from 
Salisbury, and Fawcett would take him to the 
privileged strangers' seats under the gallery, and 
bring his Parliamentary friends to talk to the old 
gentleman. 

One of the favourite ways of drawing attention 
to departmental misdeeds is to ask questions of 
the Minister of State concerned to be answered 
by him at the beginning of the sitting. These 
questions were sent up in writing and then read 
aloud to the House by the members who asked 
them. The Rt. Hon. Thomas Burt, one of the 
first working-class representatives, and an old 
friend of Fawcett 's, says : ' Mr. Fawcett often put 



'ONE MAN WHO CARED FOR INDIA' 233 

long questions, and he repeated them word for 
word as they were printed on the order paper, never 
a slip, never the sHghtest hesitation.' 

Fawcett was at once added to the committee on 
Indian finance appointed a few days before his 
election. This was the fourth year that this 
committee had worked. Punch said that it The hard- 
reminded him ' of the hen that laid so many eggs 
she could never come to the hatching of any.' 
And indeed it never published a report, though it 
collected a great deal of most valuable evidence. 

It was before this committee that Lord Salis- 
bury gave evidence on the difficulty for an Indian 
Secretary of State to withstand the demands of the 
Treasury. Continued resistance on his part was 
* to stop the machine.' * So,' said Fawcett, ' you 
must either stop the machine, or resign, or go on 
tacitly submitting to injustice.' ' I should accept 
the statement,' rephed Lord Salisbury, ' barring the 
word tacitly. I should go on submitting with loud 
remonstrances . ' 

But a strong echo in the public conscience would 
be necessary for these remonstrances to be of any 
value to India, and this is what Fawcett saw. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

FAMINE, TURKS AND INDIANS 

Punch and Fawcett — The Indian Famine — Parliamentary 
Interest aroused in India — Bulgarian Atrocities — Af- 
ghanistan War — Gladstone's Faith in Fawcett — A 
^9,000,000 Mistake. 

He was becoming one of the most prominent 
figures in the House of Commons, and as such is 
frequently mentioned in the pohtical diary with 
which Punch has amused more than two genera- 
tions. Punch gives vivid glimpses of our hero 
' hitting out in fine style,' giving ' a well deserved 
rap over the knuckles ' to some not too scrupulous 
speaker. Then he is ' the blind gentleman who 
cannot see things in his way like other people, and 
so will not be turned aside ' ; or ' One of the biggest 
wigs on India.' On a night of great debate ' First 
in the lists was that ablest of intractables, Professor 
Fawcett, who not seeing when he bores others can 
defy the penalties of boredom in the strength of an 
honest purpose.' Finally, when energy was re- 
quired ' Professor Fawcett danced over it.' 

Then back to the quiet home across the river, 
and a peaceful time by his own fireside. In damp 
weather the tolling of Big Ben would ring clear 

234 



FAMINE, TURKS AND INDIANS 235 

over the water. Fawcett did not need to be told 
it was raining or to depend on the patter on the 
window panes for his knowledge. He knew it by 
the distinctive noises of the wet wheels of traffic. 
All the various noises of the London streets were 
acutely present to him : the uneven, slow hammer 
of a lame horse's hoofs, the short quick step of a 
donkey, and the whir of the two wheels of a coster's 
donkey-cart piled high with vegetables for Covent 
Garden, or the more rhythmic trot of a pair of 
carriage horses and the almost noiseless revolutions 
of the wheels of prosperous vehicles. He knew 
of fog by the muffled cries of the cabbies and the 
linkmen, or by the bewildering tooting of the river 
craft on the Thames. 

In 1875 Gladstone retired from the Liberal leader- 
ship, and Lord Hartington was elected in his stead. 
The Liberals were a disorganised and despondent 
party, sitting in the coldest of cold shades of opposi- 
tion. But there was nothing dispirited about 
Fawcett. In this session he reiterated two former 
war-cries : the one to reduce the expenses of 
Parliamentary candidates — a proposal which still 
had little support from either side of the House ; 
the other, to insist with this Government as he had 
insisted with the former one, to bring on the debate 
on the Indian Budget in sufficient time for proper 
discussion. In the same session funds were voted 
to meet the expenses of the tour about to be made 
by the Prince of Wales in India. Fawcett was 
wishful that the whole cost of this voyage of good 



236 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

will should be met by England. But both Disraeli 
and Gladstone opposed him, and he was unable to 
get his point carried. 

The Liberty His strong belief in individual liberty gave 

viduai. Fawcett scant sympathy with that school of 

thought which was for controlling people into 
better conditions of living. When the Conservative 
Government brought in a bill for municipal action 
in cases of bad housing, and the premier happily 
misquoted ' Sanitas sanitatum, omnia sanitas,' 
Fawcett was scornful. He considered it class 
legislation and paternally patronising in a way 
that few would understand to-day. He had the 
same feeling about the Factory Acts, except when 
they were to protect the most helpless. On the 
other hand, he was eager to extend the compulsory 
attendance of children at school, and urged it 
several times during this Parliament. 

Empress of Quccu Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India 

at Delhi in 1877 amidst much stately ceremonial 
and much thundering of cannon. But the rever- 
berations from the Imperial salute had hardly died 

Famine. away before ominous news was muttered of famine 

in Bengal. It proved only too true, and was very 
terrible in its effects. More than two million 
people died. Many endeavours were made to 
cope with the disaster, and also to provide better 
against its recurrence, in all of which Fawcett 
took deep interest. A month or two later it was 
proposed to remit the duty on cotton. Fawcett, 
although a strong free trader, opposed this, as he 



FAMINE, TURKS AND INDIANS 237 

thought the change at this time would deal hardly 
with India. 

In 1879 Fawcett published an article in the 
Nineteenth Century, called ' The New Departure in 
Finance,' in which he shows the changes that have 
been wrought. He points out, amongst other 
things, that in that year the Indian Budget was 
discussed in May instead of in August, and that it 
excited sufficient interest for the debate to last 
three nights, whereas in former years it was gener- 
ally hurried over in the closing hours of the session. 
The vital importance of limiting taxation and 
reducing expenditure had been acknowledged by 
the highest authorities, and an obstacle had thus 
been surmounted which had hitherto stood in the 
way of all serious reforms. He insisted on the 
importance of developing the resources of the 
country, but objected to reckless borrowing for 
that purpose. He considered that the expenses 
could be reduced until there should be a fair surplus 
to spend on works of real value. He emphasised 
most particularly a policy always much in his 
mind. There might be a great saving of money, 
and a great gain politically, if more opportunity 
were given to the native races to be employed in 
Government posts. After calling attention to the 
heavy military expenditure, he ends with the 
expression of a hope that a new financial era is 
really being inaugurated. 

Fawcett was surprised and amused at the way 
in which his essay was received with unanimous 



the Yokels. 



238 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

approval, and said that it showed * the uncertainty 
of any forecast of the effect of an appeal to the 
public' After years of labour apparently pro- 
ductive of little result, he had suddenly become an 
exponent of accepted principles. 

He is now the great man. And a great man's 
jokes, however feeble, make their impress. But 
through this atmosphere we see the cheerful 
Fawcett of our ken, ga}^, brusque, and light-hearted. 

He walks with a friend from Newmarket to 
Cambridge. The friend relates : 
Fawcett and * We Stopped at a roadside inn for lunch ; the 

country yokels stared, as well they might, at this 
strong-faced blind man, full of interest for the 
things they knew about. He insisted on paying 
more than the landlady asked, because he had 
taken all the crust off the loaf ! 

* I saw some one on the road whom I thought 
Fawcett ought to know, who passed with no sign 
of recognition. On inquiry from him why I 
thought he would know this man, I described him 
as some old fogey who looked like a member of 
the University. Later on I had occasion to talk 
to him about the strenuous exercise he often took, 
and hazarded a conjecture that he was as strong 
as any member of the House of Commons. His 
version, shouted out to his wife directly he got 
inside of his house, was that I had been calhng him 
an old fogey, and had been trying to make up for 
it by calling him the strongest member of the 
House.' 



FAMINE, TURKS AND INDIANS 239 

* In the evening his wife or any friend present 
read aloud to him. I remember one evening, after 
I had been reading the Spectator to him, Mrs. 
Fawcett took up Trevelyan's Life of Fox, and read 
to him for some minutes ; she then looked up and 
said, 'Harry, you are asleep!' He indignantly 
denied it, and to show that he had not been asleep 
said, " I have heard every word you said. I think 
we will have some of Fox's Life now." When in- 
formed that we had been reading it for ten minutes, 
he said, without being at all disconcerted, " Oh, 
have you, then go on ! " ' 

The Beaconsfield Government (for Disraeli was The terrible 
now Earl of Beaconsfield), which had begun its '^"'^'^^• 
course so prosperously, had from 1876 onwards to 
meet difficulties arising from war in Eastern Europe. 
The Turks put down a rising in Bulgaria with in- 
conceivable barbarity, and Beaconsfield 's handling 
of the question gave great offence to many English- 
men. The sufferings of the Christians brought 
Gladstone out of his retirement and, in the first 
days of September, he published a pamphlet that 
was sold daily in its thousands. Within a fortnight 
Fawcett presided at a great meeting in Exeter Hall, 
the birthplace of so many crusades. 

It is popularly supposed that it is particularly 
difficult for the blind to keep order or to compel 
attention. This idea has often been used as an 
objection to the blind as teachers or lecturers. As 
many things are true in the same degree of the bhnd 
person as of the seeing person. The practical 



240 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

question which should be asked in such cases is 
irrespective of blindness, and is : * Has the man 
sufficient personality to be interesting and to 
command attention and respect ? ' Fawcett had. 
Both his blindness and his disregard of it compelled 
admiration, even reverence, while they added 
interest to what he said, and brought out the latent 
chivalrous, gracious qualities of his audience. It 
was probably far easier for him to preside at a 
meeting than it would have been for a sighted 
person of average calibre. He was not forced to 
keep order by himself, for most of the men at the 
meeting unconsciously helped the blind chairman 
by their sympathy and attention. Fawcett's 
natural quickness, keyed to high pitch by his blind- 
ness, made him swift to detect the slightest move- 
ment or half-murmured objection, and to catch the 
change of mood in the tones of a speaker who was, 
even unknown to himself, being turned from his 
original point. 

No breach of procedure escaped this chairman, 
whose unseeing eyes seemed to watch the expres- 
sion of each debater. To see Fawcett in the chair, 
dominating the other strong men with whom he 
worked, was a sight not to be forgotten. Rising 
to his great height, and looking around with his 
genial smile, he would open the meeting with a few 
words. If their quiet authority left no doubt but 
that there would be order, there was a pleasant 
marginal sense that it would be order not necessarily 
dreary or even unmixed with fun. 



FAMINE, TURKS AND INDIANS 241 

A striking proof of his popularity occurred at 
the National Conference in the following December. 
Gladstone was chief orator, but Fawcett, who was on 
the platform, was called for from the audience to 
add his words as well. 

But the first popular indignation became over- 
cast by a jealousy of Russian action, and when the 
House met its mood was hesitating and uncertain. 
But not Fawcett. In March he moved independ- 
ently a resolution demanding that the European 
Powers should insist on adequate reforms, and led 
an attack on the Government, that claimed to have 
a spirited foreign policy which was really a do- 
nothing policy. The Conservatives cried, horror- 
stricken, that Fawcett wanted a ' bloody war.' 
The Liberal front bench said that the resolution 
was inopportune, and they suggested it should be 
withdrawn. To this Fawcett felt obliged to con- 
sent, as a weak following from his own party would 
have made a most discouraging vote. 

Two months later Gladstone brought in a 
resolution on the subject, but thought it unwise to 
go further than he could persuade the front bench 
to follow him. How eagerly he urged the Liberal 
leaders, and how reluctantly they consented, was 
not known at the time, and the weakness of Glad- 
stone's resolution was a great disappointment to 
Fawcett. He spoke vigorously at this May debate, 
and Punch says of ' this blind, brave Mr. Fawcett,' 
* And it do me good to hear one so downright in 
these over timid times. And do call a spade a 

Q 



242 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

spade as plain as ever I hear. . . . And 
Mr. Gladstone did speak mighty well to the 
same time as Mr. Fawcett, only sharper and 
stronger and brisker and fiercer all at once as is 
his wont.' 

Fawcett, who had so lately been treated as a 
firebrand, found himself on the other side of the 
scales when in the next year's phase of the question 
Beaconsfield's Government became bellicose, and 
moved troops from India to the Mediterranean. 
Beaconsfield sided more and more strongly with 
the Turks as the question wrapped itself up into 
those complications whose orchestration is called 
the Concert of Europe. It was generally felt that 
these troops were on hand to help the Turks. 
Their removal from India to Malta roused Fawcett 
on two issues — the possibility of helping the Turks 
and the making of unfair demands on India. He 
again attacked the Ministers, or as Punch says, 
* had it out with the Government about bringing 
The Bengal the Bengal Tiger into European Waters.' 
^'^^'^' The Eastern question was to continue to disturb 

Europe, creating suspicions and fostering disagree- 
ments. Its first dramatic fruit was at the other 
end of the Russian dominions, where Afghanistan 
lies between the threatening borders of the Russian 
and British Empires. The Amir of Afghanistan, 
' an earthen pipkin between two iron pots,' was 
wooed by England and by Russia, but desired the 
attentions of neither. But to prove his neutrality 
was impossible. The Indian Government accused 



payer. 



FAMINE, TURKS AND INDIANS 243 

him of favouring Russia, and a clumsy diplomacy 
led finally to war. 

Fawcett denounced at Bethnal Green, and again 
at Hackney, the underhand conduct of the Indian 
Government towards the Amir, and demanded that 
Parliament should be summoned. He argued 
from the opinions of high authorities that an 
occupation of the capital city, Cabul, w^ould involve ' 

an intolerable burden upon Indian finances. When 
Parliament met to approve the expenditure in- 
curred in Afghanistan, Fawcett, seconded by Mr. 
Gladstone, proposed that the cost of the war 
should not be thrown upon India. Once more he To shield the 
was defending the Indian tax-payer. He com- 
plained that when it was a question of declaring 
war, the Government had boasted that they were 
carrying out a great Imperial poHcy ; when it was 
a question of paying for the war, they represented 
it as a mere border squabble. The course adopted 
by Government was unpopular, because it was 
marked by meanness and ' entire absence of 
generosity.' He declared that his constituents at 
Hackney would prefer to pay their fair share of 
the expense. His motion was rejected by 235 
to 125. Fawcett returned to the charge in the next 
session, when a financial arrangement was proposed 
for apportioning the burden between England and 
India. Fawcett, in criticising, showed that India 
would have to pay twice as much as England. He 
was again seconded by Gladstone, but was again 
unsuccessful. 



244 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



Gladstone's 
P'aith in 
Fawcett's 
knowledge. 



A Mistake of 
Nine Million 
Pounds, no 
one to blame. 



A story told of Fawcett at this time shows how 
real was the respect for his knowledge and exactness. 
He was staying at a week-end house-party in the 
country. Gladstone was there, and said to him, 
' What do you think of the news of Afghanistan ? 
I have not read the papers and I have a speech to 
make on the subject. I have been at the Corpus 
Christi library, looking at the Parker manuscripts, 
comparing the 39 Articles, so that I have had no 
time.' Fawcett told him about the Afghanistan 
conditions so fully and accurately that Gladstone, 
without having any further information, made a 
long and most telling speech about them in 
Parliament. 

The importance to Gladstone of the Parker 
manuscript as compared with the Afghanistan 
complications is highly characteristic ; we can 
imagine Fawcett's amusement that Gladstone 
should become absorbed in an academic question 
of theological punctilio, for such it would seem to 
him, when there was such really vital matters at 
issue. 

Before Parliament met again, Fawcett had 
accepted his appointment as Postmaster-General 
on condition that he would be free ' to take part in 
Indian debates.' But the great demands made on 
his time left little energy for other matters. 

He expressed himself in 1880 at length on the 
Indian Budget, when an error of nine millions in 
the accounts of the Afghan War came before the 
House. He showed how it emphasised the need 



FAMINE, TURKS AND INDIANS 245 

of the precautions which he had urged on the 
Finance Committee, especially when it appeared 
that no one could be held responsible for this great 
carelessness. It was a comfort for him to be able 
to approve, in the main, the trend which the Indian 
policy continued to take, and that what he had 
laboured for so devotedly became the policy of 
the Government. 

In reviewing his struggles for India, several 
things about him stand out forcefully. The fear- 
lessness with which he took up a dangerous posi- 
tion, and by his very bravery made it safe ground. 
The scornful way he pushed aside whatever he 
considered spurious or unworthy. He gained not 
only the love of those whose battles he fought, but 
also the respect and goodwill of his adversaries. 

Sir William Lee Warner says, * His great fear was 
that India might be saddled with charges which the 
British Treasury ought to bear ; and the poverty 
of the ryot afflicted him as if he suffered him- 
self.* This suffering for others, so characteristic 
of Fawcett, was another common trait which he 
had with Lincoln, who we remember said that 

* he didn't pull the wretched pig out of the mire 
for the pig's sake, but to take the pain out of his 
own heart.' 

In recognition of her husband's great service, 
a beautiful necklace was sent in gratitude from 
India for Mrs. Fawcett, and a sumptuous tea- 
service was sent to him, which was inscribed, 

* Presented to the Rt. Honble. Henry Fawcett, 



246 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

M.P., by his native friends and admirers in Bombay, 
India, June 1880.* 

With no aid save his great heart and tremend- 
ous energy, he had won his battle for India. 
Despite his galvanic talk and pioneering energy, 
he had shown great diplomacy. His stand had 
been made on the rock bed of honesty, and he had 
given no quarter to deceit or self-seekers. In 
serving his country as he would serve himself he 
had found his path of happiness. 



A NEW KIND OF POSTMASTER- 
GENERAL 



' You can force your heart and nerve and sinew 
to serve your turn long after they have gone — and so 
hold on when there is nothing in you except the will 
which says hold on.' — Kipling. 



CHAPTER XXV 

LIBERALS IN POWER 

General Expectation thai Fawcett would join the Cabinet 
— The Importance of a Fish — Postmaster-General — 
Queen Victoria interested — Post Office Problems — Scien- 
tific Business Management anticipated — Women's Work 
— A Likeness to Lincoln. 

It is doubtful if anything but incessant struggles, His Prepara- 

the single-handed upholding of forlorn hopes, the *^°"' 

fighting of battles with no other ammunition than 

irrefutable fact, and finally, the frequent victory 

over overwhelming dif^culties, could have fitted 

Fawcett for the great task which lay before him. 

No easier life could have given him the instinctive "| 

grip of the essential, the sympathy which reads 

men truly, and the eagerness to serve the least of 

them which fitted this blind man to take efficient 

command of an army of over 90,000 people, to 

inspire them with an esprit de corps which they 

had heretofore lacked, and incidentally to fill 

them with a sense of gratitude, loyalty and 

affection to their chief. This is what Fawcett did 

with the Post Ofiice department of England. 

The General Election of 1880 returned the 
Liberals into power, with Gladstone once more at 



250 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

their head. Fawcett's prominence before the 
public had grown so steadily and surely, and his 
attack on the last Government had been so strong, 
that he was widely accepted as a probable member 
of the new Government. 

He ran down to Cambridge just before he re- 
ceived his appointment. All who knew him there 
were on the qui vive, eagerly awaiting the good 
tidings which they expected any minute. A friend 
called, in the hope of gathering news. Fawcett 
greeted him cordially, and went on to ask, 
The Import- ' Have you seen that fish I caught yesterday ? ' 
Characteristic this, to discuss fish, not politics, at 
the crisis of his career. 

Mr. Gladstone offered the Postmaster-General- 
ship to Fawcett in April 1880. The following 
letter was written to his parents the day after : 

' My dear Father and Mother, — You will I 
know all be delighted to hear that last night I received 
a most kind letter from Gladstone offering me the 
Postmaster-Generalship. It is the office which Lord 
Hartington held when Gladstone was last in power, 
I shall be a Privy Councillor, but shall not have a seat 
in the Cabinet. I believe there was some difficulty 
raised about my having to confide Cabinet secrets ; 
apparently because of the dependence on others for 
handling correspondence. This objection, I think, 
time will remove. I did not telegraph to you the 
appointment at first because Gladstone did not wish it 
to be known until it was formally confirmed by the 
Queen ; but he told me in my interview with him this 



LIBERALS IN POWER 251 

morning that he was quite sure that the Queen took a Queen 
kindly interest in my appointment.' interested. 

He adds that Mr. Gladstone said * that he has 
given me the appointment in order that I might 
have time to speak in Indian and other debates.' 
He goes on to make some arrangements for fishing 
at Salisbuiy. 

He had himself feared that his lack of sight 
might keep him from holding office, and was not 
surprised that it debarred him from being in the 
Cabinet, but his friends were keenly disappointed. 
It was generally held at the time that his blindness 
was the cause of his exclusion, but it is noteworthy 
that Gladstone himself is not reported to have 
said so. 

A contemporary newspaper wrote : 
* No one asked why Mr. Fawcett was a member 
of the Government, but many inquired why he was 
not in the Cabinet. We have reason to believe that 
if Mr. Fawcett had been definitely apprised that 
his blindness was considered an insuperable barrier 
in the way of his admission to the Cabinet, he would 
have resigned office. He would not have consented 
to have been permanently debarred from the free 
discussion in Parliament of the questions in which 
he was intensely interested, and to which he 
brought a greater capacity of judgment than 
three-fourths of the members of any Cabinet 
England has ever seen. The opinions he could 
not express in council, he would have resumed 



252 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

the right of expressing in Padiamentar}' debate. 
It is a matter of regret that a barrier of weak 
prejudice should have excluded a man who had 
overcome so many real, and seemingly insuperable, 
barriers.' 

It was argued that a member of the Cabinet has 
to see many confidential papers, and that there 
would be difficulty in admitting some one who, in 
order to read them, would have to use other eyes 
than his own. This explanation seems hardly 
sufficient. Six months later. Lord Hartington 
offered Fawcett a seat on the Indian Council, where 
confidential documents would also have to be 
scrutinised. The English Cabinet, even in its 
methods of procedure, is so secret, that it is im- 
possible to dogmatise on the subject. But for 
that very reason, it seems the more plausible that 
difficulties such as those due to Fawcett's blindness 
could have been met and overcome. Fawcett's 
exclusion from the Cabinet may as much have been 
due to his uncompromising individuality as to his 
physical infirmity. It is to be remembered that 
Cabinet forming is difficult work, and a Prime 
Minister has to think of the claims and capacities 
of many candidates, and of how they will pull 
together. Furthermore, the principle that a man 
should serve in a subordinate office first, before 
being asked to join the Cabinet, was a favourite one 
with Gladstone. 

The reader must draw his own conclusions as 
to these high matters of State. The only reference 



\ 




FAWCETT'S SIGNATURE AND SEAL AS POSTMASTER GENERAL OF ENGLAND 

The impression of the seal was taken from the actual seal used by Fawcett ; but, at the time of King 

Edward's accession, when the expression "Her Maiesty's " became incon-ect, the word "his" was cut 

on the seal in substitution to the word "her ' 



LIBERALS IN POWER 253 

Fawcett is known to have made is in the letter to 
his father already quoted. 

In a previous administration Gladstone had had 
reason to know that the financial work of a Post- 
master-General is complex and full of intricate 
detail. In his choice of Fawcett for this post he 
showed his respect for the economist's financial 
ability. This respect was mutual : Fawcett in one 
of his letters speaks of ' the pleasure of doing busi- 
ness with a Master of the Art.' 

On the spring day when Fawcett made his first 
call at the busy Post Ofhce, he was warmly received 
by his predecessor and political opponent, Lord 
John Manners, and introduced by him to the 
leading ofificials. 

At a more formal reception to Fawcett, ' all the An official 
officials at the General Post Office were mustered ''^°^'^^^- 
to be individually introduced to him, beginning 
with the heads of departments, with each of whom 
he shook hands. These were followed by officials 
next in rank. To the first of these Fawcett was 
about to hold out his hand, when the hint was 
whispered to him, ' It is not usual for Her Majesty's 
Postmaster-General to shake hands with any one 
in the office below the rank of head of a depart- 
ment.' ' I suppose,' rejoined Fawcett, ' that I am 
at liberty to make what use I like of my own hand,' 
and he went on shaking hands with every one who Hand- 

. 1 , 1 • shakine. 

was presented to him. '' 

There is a report that this democratic hand- 
shaking proclivity was shown also in the opposite 



254 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

direction socially. At some function when Royalty 
was present, Fawcett was sent for by the Queen. 
It was his first interview with her, and unlike a 
seeing man he had no chance to observe the 
customary etiquette in these matters. So he 
advanced cheerily, heartil}^ grasped Her Majesty's 
hand and spoke of his pleasure in greeting her. 

Queen Victoria always knew how to overlook an 
unintentional breach of etiquette, and fascinated, 
as so many were, by Fawcett 's friendliness, chatted 
gaily and unceremoniously with him, while the 
court looked on, much amused and somewhat 
astounded. 

To understand Fawcett's methods and the 
manner in which he took up his new work, it is 
essential to get his estimate of its scope, and of his 
relation to it as its director. His attitude was very 
simple. He was the servant of the people — an 
engine to lift their loads and to help them to help 
A great themsclvcs to fullcr, happier lives. He regarded 

Servke^ °^ the Post Officc neither as an end in itself, nor as a 
money-making machine for the Government, but 
as an instrument which could be made of service, 
especially to the poor. 

First, he wished to give the machine a soul and 
a heart : the thought of such things in the Post 
Office seems comic, but in Fawcett's time this 
miracle was accomplished. Its whole system was 
waked up, shaken from its lethargy, and flooded 
with a new interest, and that unusual esprit de 
corps which has been mentioned, was aroused 



LIBERALS IN POWER 255 

among the employees, and alone made possible 
the results which he achieved. 

As usual, far ahead of his time, he grasped the 
chief principles of scientific business management — 
that recent art which has claimed so much atten- 
tion from the great capitalists and the directors of 
huge enterprises, especially in America. Without 
labelling his principles with high-sounding names, 
he carried them out, insisting on economy, both 
of work and fatigue, which produced contentment, 
increased interest and zeal among the employees ; 
hence greater efficiency. 

His method was, first, to diminish fatigue, 
perhaps the most wasteful factor in quasi-efficient 
business. Working and sanitary conditions were 
improved, and the staff of Post Office doctors was 
augmented. He noticed the failure in health, 
however slight, of those officers with whom he came 
in contact, and at once suggested that they should 
recruit themselves by leave of absence. Thus he 
raised the standard of physique among his workers. 
He tried to adjust the work to each individual. 
This seems impossible in so vast an enterprise, 
but by the tremendous amount of investigation 
which he made himself, and by seeing his humble 
employees as well as heads of departments, 
Fawcett brought this about to an astonishing 
degree. The threat of a strike among the tele- 
graphists soon after he assumed office gave him 
an early opportunity to prove this. Fawcett 
investigated their grievances with much personal 



256 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

inquiry, and, by a re-classification of the employees, 
satisfactorily met their complaints. 

Before long he had won the loyal adherence of 
the officials of his department, and it is dehghtful 
to see how highly he esteemed them and their 
integrity and industry. He was careful to give 
credit to the work of his subordinates, and to obtain 
for them any marks of approval or honorary dis- 
tinctions that were their due. He would add to 
his own labours rather than cause a subordinate to 
be late for luncheon or lose a train home. 

At that time the selection of women for Post 
Office work was not by open competition, but the 
applications were submitted to the Postmaster- 
General. Fawcett took much trouble about these, 
and would not allow himself to be affected by the 
influential backing of an applicant, but tried, other 
things being equal, to give the position to the one 
who needed it most. 

The following interesting anecdote is told by 
Fawcett's old friend. Sir William Lee Warner : * I 
remember on one occasion I passed him in the 
street in London, and he asked me to walk with 
him. First he asked me whether by chance any 
half-sovereigns had got into the pocket in which 
he kept sixpences. Then he wished to visit a 
certain Post Office, and as we went he would tell 
me his impressions of the names of the streets 
down which we passed, and ask me to correct him. 
His memory was wonderfully good, and even his 
sense of distances. " We must now be near such a 



LIBERALS IN POWER 257 

post office," he said, and he was nearly always 
right. We entered it and I took him to the 
counter. " Is Miss B. here ? " he asked. " No, 
but she will be back directly," was the reply. 
Then ensued a scene which impressed me with the 
inconvenience of blindness. Having ascertained 
that Miss B. was before him, he told her that he 
had received her application for promotion, and 
proceeded to discuss the matter with her. The 
applicant blushed greatly — ^her neighbours, and 
possibly her rivals, pressed forward to hear, and 
perhaps resent her application. The poor creature 
looked the more uncomfortable as the Postmaster- 
General became the more considerate and promised 
to give his best attention to her request.* 

Keen for any efficient service obtainable, he Help for 
welcomed what able assistance women could offer. ^°'"^"- 
He largely extended the employment of women 
workers in the Post Office. This has proved so 
successful that the number of women in the various 
branches of the Post Office has steadily increased, 
and is now very large. Fawcett was wont to say 
that he considered the head of the women's staff 
of the Savings Bank one of the ablest officials in 
the whole postal service. 

Mrs. Garrett Anderson, his sister-in-law, was 
deeply interested in his work for the women in the 
Post Office, and especially in his efforts to have 
them labour under healthful conditions. She 
was a distinguished doctor, and in 1882 Fawcett, 
after consultation with her, appointed a woman 

R 



258 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

doctor to look after the women in the London post 
office. He also, with excellent results, appointed 
women doctors at Liverpool and Manchester. 
Under the improved conditions for health and of 
health, the women's work was eminently satis- 
factory, and at the time of his death there were 
two thousand nine hundred and nineteen employed 
in the department. 

He noted that difficulties occurred when, as was 
then customary, on the marriage of a postmistress 
her appointment was given to her husband. When 
he was not the right person for the new place, this 
led to trouble ; in 1882 the passage of the Married 
Woman's Property Act enabled him to decide that 
a woman should in every case have the option of 
retaining the appointment in her own name. This 
arrangement was confirmed by Lord Eversley, 
who succeeded Fawcett at the Post Office. 

Fawcett went personally into many complaints 
against petty officials. Unless fully convinced, he 
was righteously unwilling to dismiss a man, and so 
often leave him with a stigma for life. Losses of 
letters having occurred in a local post office, a 
watch was set, and suspicion fell on a clerk who 
had been caught using telegrams for racing and 
betting. As a preliminary measure, the clerk was 
removed to another office for a month, and the 
irregularities immediately ceased ; he was then 
sent back, and at once they began again. What 
could be a clearer case ? He must be dismissed 
at once. * Give him another chance,' said Fawcett. 



LIBERALS IN POWER 259 

* He has admitted his gambling. Had he denied 
it I should have been convinced he was guilty of 
thefts.' Certain tests, usual in the Post Office 
service, were applied, and the result proved con- 
clusively that the culprit was a guard on the 
railway, who had been astute enough to forgo 
taking the letters during the absence of the sus- 
pected clerk, and who began again when the man 
returned. * There, you see,' said Fawcett, ' by a 
little extra care I saved a foolish young man from 
the absolute ruin of character which his dismissal 
from the Post Office would have caused.' 

Again we are reminded of his likeness to that 
other great, tall, contemporary champion of justice, 
who, across the Atlantic, had given his life to serve 
the oppressed and the debased. Lincoln's critics 
were always reproaching him for his excessive 
leniency and clemency ; he would never let a 
shadow fall on the life of an unfortunate if he could 
help it. He forgot to sign the death warrant for a 
scared boy who had run away when his officer told 
him to face his first mad sight of battle ; and he 
meekly granted a widowed mother a pardon for 
her renegade son. So Fawcett, in his peaceful role 
of directing the Post Office, hated and hesitated 
to confirm an order for dismissing a subordinate. 
His critics say that occasionally he pushed clemency 
to weakness, and that he was ' unwilling to enforce 
punishments really called for in the interests of the 
necessary discipline.' More than a quarter of a 
century has passed since this was said, and with 



260 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

the definition of bad (as good out of place) we 
have come to question the use of so-called punish- 
ments. Perhaps Fawcett and Lincoln, in trying 
not to inflict them, because of their dislike to give 
pain, were in this respect also far ahead of their 
time, and, by their intuitive hate of doing an injury 
to any one, were anticipating the wisest policy of 
to-day, which seeks by scientific adjustment and 
inspiration to do away with so crude a thing as 
punishment. The future will judge of this, but 
we can appreciate the righteous fear such men 
had of unjustly interfering with personal rights, 
or trying to make a stereotyped formula fit an 
erring human being. 

When differences of opinion occurred, Fawcett 
would discuss the question with his subordinates 
to an * almost wearisome length ' because he dis- 
liked unnecessarily to thrust their opinions aside. 
He often said that as he could not see himself, he 
had an earnest wish to see things as much as 
possible from the point of view of others. By 
bringing home his personality to the great mass of 
Post Office servants, and by calling the attention 
of the public to the value of the work done by the 
permanent staff, he raised the tone of the whole 
service, enhanced their self-respect, and increased 
the estimation in which they are held by the 
public. 

The employee who had fallen under the spell 
of his new chief's enthusiasm and kindliness felt, 
no matter how humble a niche he occupied, that 



LIBERALS IN POWER 261 

he was doing part of the good work of a great 
country, and forgot that he was, perhaps, a poorly 
paid clerk in a God-forsaken hamlet. His efforts Esprit de 
would be redoubled ; the golden chain of service °^'^^' 
linked all the little outlying posts with the great 
ones, bound even the little half-frozen postmistress 
in the bleakest settlement of the empire to help 
on the work of the jovial, warm-hearted chief in 
the briUiant city of London. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

FRESH AIR, BLUE RIBBONS, AND POSTMEN 

A Day with the Postmaster-General — How he worked 
Reform — The Parcel Post. 

By his intense love of the open air Fawcett kept 
mind and body fresh, and was eager and able to 
cope with his problems, and to welcome new ones. 
The late Sir Robert Hunter said : ' He frequently 
walked up and down outside the post office in the 
middle of the day, while smoking his cigarette, 
and on Saturdays he either walked, or rowed on 
the Thames with an old friend or two. He rowed 
very badly, and caused much discomfort to his 
companions by * catching crabs.' 

* I often used to accompany him, on long walks 
over Wimbledon Common, and he liked walk- 
ing on uneven ground as contrasted with smooth 
pavements. I remember his saying one day how 
much better it was to get out into the country than 
to follow the prevalent fashion of hanging about 
the clubs on a Saturday, on the chance of picking 
up some piece of political gossip, gossip mostly 
untrue and worthless.' It is also told that when 
a mutual friend mentioned to Fawcett that he 
was going to stay in the country with the newly 

262 



FRESH AIR, BLUE RIBBONS, POSTMEN 263 

appointed solicitor : ' Ah,' said the bhnd man, * you 

are going down to : Hunter has a wonderful 

view there ! ' 

Applications did not need to be influentially 
backed to receive his interested attention. The 
request of a cottager to have his letters brought 
to his own cottage instead of to the house of his 
employer would be investigated by Fawcett as 
carefully as a request from a Minister of State. 
Nothing was too much trouble for him. He re- 
ceived a petition from the town of Guildford asking 
for an additional daily postal delivery. He in- 
vited a small deputation from among the signers of 
the petition to come to London and talk the matter 
over with him. Among those who formed the 
deputation was a medical man who gave the follow- 
ing account of what took place at the interview : 
* After Fawcett had welcomed us most kindly, 
he had a little map of the town, which had been 
specially drawn up for the occasion, distributed 
among us, and then himself gave us an address on 
the work of the Guildford postmen. He described 
minutely the various rounds of each of them, 
specifying the names of the streets passed through, 
and the length of time occupied in traversing them. 
Summing up these data, he proved that the 
additional deHvery for which we asked could only 
be provided at the cost of engaging an additional 
postman, which the local finances would not 
justify. None of us had a word to say against 
this demonstration, and I, for my part, quitted the 



264 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



What kind of 
a Donkey? 



Blue Ribbon. 



General Post Office filled with astonishment that 
a blind man should seem to know more than I 
myself did about a town in which, as boy and man, 
I had been going about all my life.' ^ 

A large factor in his success was that he always 
kept his sense of humour to the fore. A friend 
remonstrated with the Postmaster-General because 
the post was brought to him by a donkey. But 
his only answer was a deeply interested inquiry, 
* What kind of a donkey is it, a lean donkey, or 
a fat donkey ? ' 

When complaint was made to the Postmaster- 
General that it was not * official ' for women work- 
ing in the Post Office to wear the ' blue ribbon,* 
Fawcett replied that by doing so they set a very 
good example, and he had no fault to find with 
their office work. To a similar complaint about a 
postman, he replied that they might wear all 
the colours of the rainbow if it would keep them 
from drinking. 

Though he did not take part in the various 
temperance campaigns of his day, Fawcett believed 
very strongly in the evils of drink. His own 
temperate existence, the fact that even in his 
college days he had never drunk too much, put 
him in a strong position to talk to others about the 
foolishness of drunkenness and the great loss of 
strength caused by an indulgence in drink. He 



* This account was given in approximately the above words by 
the late Mr. Henry Taylor of Guildford to his cousin, Mr. Sedley 
Taylor of Cambridge. 



FRESH AIR, BLUE RIBBONS, POSTMEN 265 

was much in earnest in trying to persuade men of 
all classes to be temperate, and would unhesitat- 
ingly argue with hard-drinking men against their 
unwise course. 

The following outline of his daily work is kindly 
given by Mr. Dryhurst, who was his secretary at 
the time. The official pouches would be brought 
to the House of Commons at six o'clock. These 
contained the * minutes,' to use the official term, 
i.e. the proposals submitted for his approval or 
instructions. His secretary would get up these 
papers and afterwards read them to his chief. 
This had to be a thorough process, for Fawcett, 
instead of passing them as a matter of form, was 
certain to ask minute questions about them. He 
returned home from the House of Commons any 
time from one to four a.m. After breakfast the a day with 
following morning, * the meat,' as he called it, would master- 
be read to him out of the morning news, and then General, 
important papers would be put before him to be 
approved or initialled. If he felt he did not know 
enough to approve or disapprove, he would ask 
to see So-and-so later at the post office. At eleven- 
thirty to twelve, partly by cab and partly on foot, 
he would reach the post office, and there spend the 
next three to four hours in discussing with the 
officials the proposals they had put before him, or 
new ones which were in contemplation. 

Other important business during the parlia- 
mentary session would be the preparation of 
answers to the questions to be asked in the House 



266 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

of Commons in the afternoon. As soon as this 
work was done, he walked along the Embankment 
from Blackfriars to the House of Commons. 

It is interesting to set beside this more impres- 
sions of Sir Robert Hunter, which he most kindly 
gave to the writer shortly before his death. Sir 
Robert was appointed solicitor to the Post Office by 
Fawcett, who was particularly glad to make the 
appointment, as Mr. Hunter, as he was then, was 
an old friend. The two men had worked together 
in the Commons Preservation Society, to which 
Sir Robert Hunter was the indefatigable solicitor, 
and Fawcett had then become thoroughly familiar 
with his great abilities. 

Speaking of the blind Postmaster-General, Sir 
Robert said that he gave the Post Office an enor- 
mous lift ; he tried to make it an important social 
instrument for the amelioration of the State. His 
personality was most inspiriting. He would come 
to the post office on Monday morning with a 
crumpled little piece of paper, which he would 
hand to any one standing near to read to him. It 
contained perhaps half a dozen words ; for example : 
* Foreign delivery, parcels, stamp, alterations.' 
This slight help to his memory was sufficient to 
remind him perhaps of all the day's work, including 
investigations and even what he was prepared to 
say before the House of Commons in the afternoon. 
He took great pains with his answers for question 
time, discussing, writing, and re-writing them. 
But once they were settled and read over to him 



FRESH AIR, BLUE RIBBONS, POSTMEN 267 

in their final form, they were dehvered by him in 
the House verbatim without any effort. If some 
proposal came before him in the guise of a file 
of papers, he always endeavoured to ascertain 
what official had given most consideration to the 
question, and he then discussed the matter with 
him personally. This was an innovation. The 
discussion would suggest ideas which would often 
lead to improvements in the administration. His 
enthusiasm made every one feel the need of work- now he 
ing harder and doing better than under a less in- 
spiring leader. He gained the affection of all by 
his astonishing consideration, and by not giving 
unnecessary trouble.' 

Though now a mature and distinguished man, he 
had not changed from his buoyant earlier self, and 
with each return to Cambridge took up his lectures 
and his social life with a new glow and fresh zeal. 
He appreciated more than ever, if possible, the value 
of work and fun in life, and in return, for his in- 
dustry and gaiety, life yielded him full measure of 
joy and contentment. 

A Trinity Hall contemporary tells of going to 
stay with a friend in the country, and on his 
arrival finding no one at home ; but being told 
by the butler that Mr. Fawcett had arrived and 
was fishing in the neighbourhood, the new guest 
went in search. After a short walk in the meadows 
he was surprised to see in the neighbourhood of a 
brook a large group of cows standing in contempla- interested 
tion about some central object which he could not 



268 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

make out. A nearer view revealed Fawcett seated 
in the charmed circle, the cynosure of all the 
bovine eyes ! In his hand he held a fishing-rod, 
the line being firmly caught above his head to the 
branch of a tree. The anxious and puzzled observer 
asked what was the matter, to which Fawcett 
answered unconcernedly : ' Oh, I 'm all right, 
thanks ; I 'm very glad to see you ! ' On further 
inquiry about his hypnotised audience of cows, 
he explained, * Oh, it was the boy's lunch-time, 
so I sent him off to get it. My fish-hook 
got caught in the tree and these cows just hap- 
pened to come round.' As always, he was having 
an idyllic time, and was amused by his friend's 
perplexity. 
A Faithful Mr. Dryhurst tells of Fawcett in a different 

predicament, the centre of a very different circle 
at Cambridge. Like most healthy men, he took 
his trifling ailments most seriously, and was much 
worried by any unusual symptoms. One day, 
having a fearful pain in his chest, he went to a 
chemist in Cambridge. The chemist properly made 
inquiry as to a possible cause for the trouble. Had 
there been perhaps some reckless indulgence ? 
some forbidden fruit or similar dissipation ? 
Fawcett could find, however, no possible explana- 
tion for his illness, though he parenthetically re- 
marked that he had eaten forty walnuts. The 
chemist finally prescribed for this mysterious 
illness a tar adhesive plaster and applied a large 
one to Fawcett 's chest. The same evening the 



Plaster. 



FRESH AIR, BLUE RIBBONS, POSTMEN 269 

invalid went to a dinner-party. The weather 
was close, the room badly ventilated. A slight 
but rapidly increasing odour of tar was noticed 
by one or two of the guests. Fawcett blandly 
remarked that they were repairing the streets 
of Cambridge, which might perhaps account for 
the odour, and thus diverted any awkward in- 
vestigation . 

On his return to London, Fawcett was asked by a German 
the head of the German Post Office to allow him ^^^^°^' 
to send an official to study certain points of ad- 
ministration. Fawcett gladly gave the required 
leave, and on reaching the office one morning was 
informed that the German official had arrived and 
was already at work in one of the departments. 
* Tell him,' said Fawcett, * that I should be glad 
to speak to him in my room.' As a considerable 
time elapsed without his putting in an appearance, 
Fawcett asked the reason for the delay, and re- 
ceived the following answer : * Directly we told 
the German gentleman that you wished to speak 
to him, he put on his coat and hat and left the 
office, and we saw him drive off in a hansom cab.' 
This seemed a very odd way of behaving, but the 
matter was satisfactorily cleared up before long 
by the return of the German visitor in full official 
costume and with all his orders on. Fawcett, 
concealing his amusement, expressed his regret 
that so much trouble should have been thrown 
away on a blind man who could not perceive the 
results. The German visitor explained that in 



270 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

no case could he have presented himself before a 
Minister of a foreign power in ordinary attire. 
To have done so would have rendered him 
liable to most serious censure from his own 
official superiors. 
New Ideas, Fawcett always lent a ready ear to all suggestions 

for widening the work. Friends told him of the 
reply postcard and of the indicators used abroad 
to show when the last collection had been made 
at the pillar boxes. Gleefully, like a boy with a 
new toy, he seized these, to him, new ideas, and 
made them part of the little details of his great 
machine. He loved to watch the effect of any 
new improvement, and was interested in hearing 
of the greater convenience and consequently 
greater correspondence due to the erection of a 
pillar box in Salisbury near his old home. He 
multiplied pillar boxes in railway stations, and had 
letter boxes fixed to the travelling post offices in 
trains, and greatly accelerated the collection and 
delivery of letters. He arranged for the issue of 
postal orders on board ship, and earned the 
gratitude of pensioners by arranging to have their 
money sent by post, thus saving them a journey. 
The official reports testify to his love of the minutiae 
of his task. 

He was as genuinely absorbed in it as if the 
administration of the Post Office had been the desire 
of his lifetime. In a letter to his father on 7th 
April 1883, he names briefly his chief ambitions for 
the extension of his work. He writes ; ' Before I 



FRESH AIR, BLUE RIBBONS, POSTMEN 271 

had been a fortnight at the Post Office I felt that 

there were five things to be done : (i) The parcel Five things 

post ; (2) the issue of postal orders ; (3) the receipt 

of small savings in stamps and the allowing of small 

sums to be invested in the funds ; (4) increasing 

the facilities for life insurance and annuities ; 

(5) reducing the price of telegrams. The first four 

I have succeeded in getting done, and now the fifth 

is to be accomplished.' 

It is only last year (1913) that the United States 
Post Office, after many struggles, has at last followed 
the example of the Mother Country in introducing 
the parcel post. At this time it may be of especial Parcel Post, 
interest to take a short survey of the history of this 
great agent for helpfulness and of the splendid part 
which Fawcett played in promoting it. As early 
as 1698 Docwra originated the penny post for 
London. It dispensed impartially * bank boxes, 
tradesmen's parcels, and apothecaries' mixtures.' 
Patients complained wisely or unwisely (for it 
seems that there has always been a faction in 
favour of mind cure) that they did not get their 
physic in time. But the high rate of postage put 
an end to this. Though a parcel post was advo- 
cated by Sir Rowland Hill, the Society of Arts, the 
Royal Commission on Railways, and though Lord 
John Manners had opened up negotiations with the 
various interests involved, no working agreement 
had been arrived at. When Fawcett took office 
he became keenly interested and persisted reso- 
lutely till the many difficulties were overcome. It 



272 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

required tireless patience, tact, and diplomacy, both 
with the Treasury department, which had to pro- 
vide funds to meet the first outlay, and with the 
railway companies. Fawcett's part in the work of 
establishing this new system was interrupted by 
illness, but, nevertheless, the new order was in full 
swing in August 1883. 

He took a keen delight in this fresh work, of 
which he felt that the public should have the 
benefit, even if the Government made little profit. 
On the evening when the parcel post was started, 
Fawcett, with his wife and daughter, went to the 
* circulation office.' He writes afterwards on the 
same night to his parents, describing the scene, 
the extraordinary variety of objects posted, 
The new red and the 'smartly painted red vans.' He begs 
^"^' them to come and have a look at it. Three 

days later he reports that things are work- 
ing smoothly, and speaks warmly of the zeal 
of all concerned, from the head officials down 
to the humblest letter-carrier. He says that 
he shall soon issue a general notice of thanks to 
the persons co-operating in the result. The only 
difficulty was the public inexperience in the art 
of packing. 

In his report Fawcett writes : * The new post had 
been introduced without the least interference with 
the older services. The number of parcels con- 
veyed had increased and was now at the rate of 
from twenty-one to twenty-two millions a year. 
Simplifications, and consequent economies had been 




^•<^^ 

^ 


THE 


It- 


!»*«■ J-. 


MAN FOR THE POST. 



With special permission from the Proprietors of "Punch 



FRESH AIR, BLUE RIBBONS, POSTMEN 273 

introduced, and further improvements were under 
consideration.' 

Though not at first a financial success, the 
parcel post became a great national asset, and 
later also a generous contributor to the national 
exchequer ; and though Fawcett's death came 
too soon, probably, for him to realise the quick 
improvement, his innovations and model methods 
made the English Post Office an all-important study 
for other countries. 

Men, not things, interested Fawcett, as they do 
most born leaders. He knew that if he could 
energise the minds and bodies of the men and 
women of the peaceful army he commanded, and 
fill them with zeal for their job, the work of The Heart of 
England's Post Office would go of itself. The g^f^°'* 
machinery would fly, and each department fill its 
mission with miraculous new life. Telegrams, 
letters, and parcels would dart and fly with fresh 
quickness to their destinations, and the revenue 
from his latest ventures would return, like a carrier 
pigeon, to his fostering hand. 

Fawcett's magnetism and good nature, combined 
with his driving energy, and his love for the work 
and the workers, brought about the transformation 
of the Post Office from a partially efficient machine 
to a highly sensitive, highly organised, democratic 
department, highly efficient for the good of his 
country and its dependencies. His irrepressible 
enthusiasm for service infected his force from the 
lowest to the highest, brought out the best in them, 

S 



274 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

and knit them together by this bond of interest and 
brotherhood. He instilled in them the fervour for 
conquest of the nobler kind that inspires patriots, 
soldiers, or explorers. Thus he gave wings, interest, 
even poetry to the stamping of letters and collecting 
of mail. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE PENNIES OF THE POOR 

Cheap Postal Orders — Savings Bank — Life Insurance — 
Two Post Office Pamphlets to help the People — -Cheap 
Telegrams — Telephones — ' The Man for the Post ' — 
' Words are Silver, Silence is Gold.' 

It had been felt for some time that it would be 
possible to send small sums of money by post more 
cheaply. The only method, that of Post Office Postal Money 
Money Orders, in force when Fawcett became Post- 
master-General, was well described by him when he 
said : * If a boy wanted to send his niother the 
first shilling he had saved, he would have to pay 
twopence for the order and a penny for postage.' 
A committee had a measure prepared to remedy 
this, and Fawcett quickly saw its value and got the 
measure passed through Parliament. Thus origin- 
ated the Postal Order which is so familiar to us all. 
In making this change Fawcett had to over- 
come the opposition of the banking interest, who 
considered that the Government was infringing on 
their preserves. He came into conflict with them 
again when he increased the facilities of the Savings Postal Savings 
Bank. He made it possible to begin with the 
smallest sums by adopting the scheme of stamp slip 
deposits, which had been worked out and devised 

275 



276 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

by Mr. Chetwynd, an official of the Post Office. 
This was a blank form which could be filled up 
with twelve penny stamps, and then deposited in 
the Savings Bank. 

At this time Fawcett, with the help of a Mr. 
Cardin, another official, prepared his first popular 
pamphlet, called * Aids to Thrift.' He took an 
enormous amount of interest in this little leaflet, 
which he felt would be a great help to the poor 
and ignorant. He tried to give the information 
printed in the regular Post Office Guide in the 
simplest language, so that the benefits offered by 
the Post Office could be easily grasped by the most 
ignorant. 
The Working A sad incident set his mind to working out 
n[surrdl° another scheme for lessening the difficulties of the 
working man. ' A poor neighbour employed in a 
mill near Salisbury had fallen ill. He had insured 
himself in a certain society which was to pay him 
an allowance in case of illness. The allowance was 
stopped under certain pretences strongly suggestive 
of fraud. Fawcett, to whom he appealed, immedi- 
ately called at the offices of the society. The 
secretary, not recognising his visitor, treated him 
with considerable insolence. Fawcett brought the 
man to his senses, extracted certain sums from the 
society, and took steps to investigate the nature of 
its business. He had the satisfaction of obtaining 
something for the poor man, who died not long 
afterwards. Fawcett did what he could for the 
family.' 



PUNCH, on, THF, LON'DOS- CHArJVAriT.— Novrmuer 27, LS.-iO. 




THE NEW STAMP Dl'l'V. 

Mn. riwcm. " NOW, THEN, ALL OK YOU, ' IN 1 OR A rKXNY IN I Oil A roLNP.' 
"Mr. FAwcni'9 silKHii- l,riiigs.n\iii|;\>itl,iii.irnl.Jj', ira. I.."— r;,.if.. 



With special peniiissioii from the Proprietors of "Punch" 



THE PENNIES OF THE POOR 277 

The facts which he gleaned in connection with Post Office 
this case and others, as well as from his many ^"""'t'"- 
friendships since childhood with labourers and 
peasants, made him realise the problems which 
beset the poor who wish to insure against the future. 
He improved the system of Post Office Annuities, 
and arranged for the publication of a short paper 
called ' Plain Rules for the Guidance of persons 
wishing to make provision for the future with the 
aid of the Government.' This also was to be had 
gratuitously, and did much to teach the poor how 
to provide for themselves. 

Fawcett regretted that telegrams were too cheaper 
expensive to be a convenience for any but the rich. Teiegranis. 
The betting ring and the Stock Exchange were its 
principal patrons. He was deeply interested in 
lowering the cost, so that telegrams could become 
useful to the ' plain people.' Among the first 
deputations to be given an audience by the new 
Postmaster, was one requesting cheap telegrams. 
He set himself with a will to get them, writing and 
speaking to urge this new reform. It meant a 
fresh expense for the Treasury, at least at the 
beginning, and he could not get the consent of that 
department. But there were many members of 
the House of Commons who favoured the change, 
and pushed it, relying on the Postmaster-General's 
well-known sympathy. In 1883 they succeeded 
in outvoting the Government, and the adoption of 
sixpenny telegrams became certain. 

Fawcett always had a fellow-feeling for the small 



278 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

The Tele- boy, and he was very anxious that the telegraph 
graph Boys. ^^^^ ^^^^ -^ ^j^^ p^^^ q^^^ shouM be kept in the 

service, mounting from their positions as under- 
studies of Mercury to those of greater distinction 
and better pay. When on a visit to a friend in a 
suburb of a large manufacturing town, Fawcett 
found that his friend was able by telephone to 
direct his business in the town by half an hour's 
conversation, and was then free for the rest of the 
day. This so greatly impressed Fawcett, that he 
became eager to give the public as large an enjoy- 
ment of telephones as possible. He was in favour 
of granting the widest possible liberty to qualified 
persons to start telephone exchanges, making the 
condition that the Post Office should be paid a 
royalty of ten per cent., and that no written tele- 
phone messages should be delivered. One of his 
last acts was the approval of a licence containing 
these terms, which was signed by his successor. 
He refused firmly but gently, in his last interview 
at the Post Office, to grant to a gentleman the pro- 
tection which he asked for a small telephone com- 
pany, thus showing himself to the last true to his 
belief in open competition. 

We have now seen something of Fawcett's task 
at the Post Office, thirty-three years ago, and how 
he strove to do the work largely in accordance 
with our most approved and up-to-date methods. 
Some of his tools are now obsolete, the work has 
been changed in detail, but the philosophy and 
wisdom, the business sense and control which he 



THE PENNIES OF THE POOR 279 

showed in his four and a half years of office were 
what could be considered to-day so remarkable, so 
successful, as to amount to executive genius. Gen£^"'^^^ 

Sir Arthur Blackwood, who was Permanent 
Secretary to the Post Office in Fawcett's day, used 
of his chief this striking phrase : * He had a passion 
for justice.' His only criticism of Fawcett's 
administration was that he was too lenient to 
erring subordinates, and apt to give too much 
time to details which might have been entrusted 
to others. His conclusion was : ' The Post Office 
could never, I believe, have a more capable Post- 
master-General, nor its officers a truer friend.' 

As witness to this last, a post-office clerk wrote : 
* The humblest servant within the dominion of his 
authority was not left uncared for. During his 
history as Postmaster-General, a greatly improved 
state of feeling has been introduced among the 
officers in their general tone towards each other and 
towards those beneath them.' 

The view of the country at large was equally 
emphatic. Let these verses from Punchy written 
after Fawcett had been two years in office, speak 
for the popular appreciation of his work : — 

'THE MAN FOR THE POST 

John Bull loquitur 

Well, well, here 's comfort, and, by Jove, it 's needed 
Amidst the chaos of cantankerous cackle, 
Here is one man has silently succeeded — 
One man who a tough job can stoutly tackle. 



280 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

O si sic omnes ! In my blatant Babel 

Business is a lost art — at least it seems so. 

All the more honour to the Champion able 

Who still can realise my hopes and dreams so, 

To serve the State, to sagely shape and plan for it, 

Is the true Statesman's part, and here 's the man for it. 

No epic hero ! Well, I 'm getting weary 

Of the huge windiness now dubbed heroic, 

"Arms and the Man " — and a fiasco dreary 

Too oft repeated, irritate a Stoic 

Such as I 'm grown. And then I 'm not quite certain, 

Applied to him the name is pure misnomer. 

Fawcett, though seldom called before the curtain, 

Perhaps in more than one point pairs with Homer. 

Although one sang Achilles and his host, 

The other schemed, not sang, the Parcels Post. 

Perhaps the large ambition that loves spangles 

And warrior fame might pooh-pooh the projectors, 

But I 'm inclined to fancy Red Tape's tangles 

Are tougher foes than many Trojan Hectors. 

Achilles as I^aocoon might have thundered 

And thrust tremendously, and yet been throttled. 

St. Stephen's spouters long have fought and blundered. 

And long my rising wrath I 've choked and bottled. 

But I am glad to see one silent, strong fellow, 

Who emulates the hero sung by Longfellow. 

"Something attempted, something done ! " Precisely ! 
A friend of mine, who much inclined to scoff is. 
Declares when Fawcett's plans have ripened nicely, 
The World will be a branch of the Post Office. 
Let the Wit wag, the World won't find salvation 



THE PENNIES OF THE POOR 281 

In parcels or reply-cards, stamps or thriftiness ; 
Danger there may be in " centralisation," 
But after all the squabbling, hobbling shiftiness 
Of the cantankerous, rancorous jaw-jaw-jaw-set, 
'Tis a relief to turn to turn to Henry Fawcett ! ' 



The * one silent, strong fellow ' had learned a 
patience and tact in his later years that stood him 
in good stead when he found himself member of a 
Government, and there bound to refrain from 
criticising its actions. A story told of him at this 
time shows a gentle avoidance of differences not 
so common in his earlier days. 

Professor Clifford, an old Cambridge friend, and 
secretary of the whilom Republican Club, died in 
1880 leaving his widow in straitened circumstances. 
Professor Clifford was a mathematician of the 
first order, but, especially in his later years, he 
became an aggressive anti-religionist, and wrote 
much on these matters. 

Fawcett wanted to arrange for a pension for the a Widow's 
widow, and took occasion to speak to the Prime ^^"^'°"- 
Minister. Gladstone took Fawcett with him down 
to his room and asked him, * Who is the great man 
at Cambridge now ? ' Fawcett mentioned the loss 
that the university had recently sustained by the 
death of its mathematician, carefully alluding to 
Professor Clifford in this manner. Gladstone said, 
' I always regarded him as a third-rate theologian.' 
To which Fawcett said, * I know nothing about his 
theology, but as a mathematician he stood in the 



282 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

very front rank.' This opinion of Fawcett's so 
impressed Gladstone that Mrs. Clifford's name was 
added to the Civil Pension List. 

Fawcett would not have joined the Ministry 
unless he felt in real sympathy with its avowed 
principles, but it is probable that had he remained 
independent he would have found much to criticise. 
Leslie Stephen comments : * His position as a 
Minister without a seat in the Cabinet imposed 
reserve, whilst it did not enable him to exert any 
direct influence upon the Government. On some 
points I can only conjecture his probable views. 
Mr. Gladstone's Government was especially notable 
for its Irish and Egyptian policy. In both cases I 
imagine Fawcett's sympathy must have been im- 
perfect.' 

This position requiring silence, without giving 
him power to exert direct influence on the Govern- 
ment, must have been, to one of his frank, honest, 
fighting temperament, at times very difficult. 
Interest in He was profoundly interested in Ireland, and 

felt that the only satisfactory symptom in Irish 
matters was the increased use of the Savings Bank. 
A friend of Fawcett's having casually mentioned 
his name in a remote part of Ireland, was surprised 
at the exclamation, * Oh, we know all about him 
here ! ' This remark was based on the fact that a 
girl from the district had gone with great credit 
through all the stages of a telegraph clerk's posi- 
tion in the English General Post Oflice. On her 
quitting to get married, Fawcett had sent for her, 



ArarL 9, 1881.] 



PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHAEIVARI. 



ESSENCE OF PAftLIAMENT. 

ESTTUICTBD ?R0« 

THE. DIAET OF TOBT, M.P. 




VVfVtY i KV.^!.<i"Nv, 



With Special permission from the Proprietots of "PumcIi" 



THE PENNIES OF THE POOR 283 

and in the kindest manner thanked her for her past 
services, and offered his hearty good wishes for 
her happiness. 

He felt strongly that exceptional legislation was 
required to deal with the land questions of Ireland, 
and that any legislation would be futile which did 
not reflect in some way the wishes of the Irish them- 
selves. No one could be more opposed than he 
to Home Rule, which, he declared, meant ' the 
disruption of the Empire.' He would rather, as he 
said on one occasion, that the Liberal Party should 
remain out of ofhce till its youngest member had 
grown grey with age, than be intimidated into 
voting for Home Rule. Still he held that some such 
legislation as that embodied in Mr. Gladstone's 
Land Bill was necessary. 

It is related that once at this time, when sitting 
with friends who were discussing the Irish irrecon- 
cilability, he kept repeating, as if to himself, ' We 
must press on and do what is right ' ; and he wrote 
to his father, ' There is nothing for it, but to 
persevere in doing justice in spite of all provo- 
cation.' 

He felt that the Egyptian policy was weak, and 
on one or two occasions so far showed his distrust 
as to refuse to vote. But for the most part he Loyal Work 
absorbed himself in the work of his own depart- gntn^e^^^ 
ment, and did it nobly. He gave hard work, 
sound sense, resolute purpose, and a gay elasticity 
of spirit which no weariness could break. It was 
truly said of him that he bettered everything and 



284 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

kept his eye on everything. In this, as in every 
task, he neared his ideal which he had expressed on 
leaving Cambridge : * To exert an influence in 
removing the social evils of our country, and 
especially the paramount one, the mental degrada- 
tion of millions. I regard it as a high privilege of 
God if He will enable me to assist in such a 
work.' 



A TRIUMPHANT END 



' Strive for the truth unto death, 
and the Lord shall fight for thee.' 

' The things which are seen are temporal, but 
the thinsrs which are unseen are eternal.' 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

AT HOME AND AT COURT 

Appreciating Opponents — Hackney Address — Propor- 
tional Representation — Justice for Women — A State 
Concert — Humble Friendships — Pigs — Salisbury again. 

The same respect for the individuality of others Appreciating 
which made Fawcett unwilling to punish a sub- pp°"^'^^5- 
ordinate if he could honourably avoid it, which 
made him often detect good quahties in the offender 
to compensate for the offence, made him also quick 
to respect and admire an adversary, even when 
strongly repudiating his principles. Fawcett never 
forgot that his opponent was a human being, how- 
ever different their political creeds. In his later 
years his sympathy may not have been any deeper 
than in his vigorous youth, but it expressed itself 
more gently and more skilfully. When his fine 
wrath was roused, he still had at his command 
barbed arrows of sarcasm and thunders of de- 
nunciation, but his speech was more apt to be 
kindly. He trusted more than in his less experi- 
enced days to force of example and to irrefutable 
logic. His fairness and justice stood out in fine 
contrast to the hectic verbal warfare raging between 
rival factions. When, on 13th October 1884, he 

287 



ism 



288 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

spoke in public for the last time, he administered a 
grave rebuke to * the spirit of mutual intolerance,' 
saying : 
Prudence ' If wc take a calm review of the situation . . . 

and Patriot- ^^ rcfuse to enter into useless recriminations and 
taunts about the past. I still have not relinquished 
the hope . . . that the counsels of common sense, 
prudence, and patriotism will prevail. . . . Can 
we come to any other conclusion than that the 
present is a time when the dictates of prudence and 
patriotism demand that everything should be done 
to lessen, rather than to intensify, the bitterness of 
party strife,' 

He went on to speak on a subject which had been 
much in his mind from the beginning of his political 
career. Proportional representation meant to him 
the method, and the only method, by which the 
different elements of the body poHtic could be fairly 
represented in Parliament. So earnestly did he 
hold to this view that he made up his mind, with 
his friend Lord Courtney, to resign his office should 
the Government proceed with legislation incom- 
patible with these principles. In this last word 
on a subject on which it has been necessary in this 
book to omit so many other words, Fawcett 
emphasised the main principle in these phrases : 
* While we regard it as of the first moment that 
no important section of opinion should be effaced 
from representation, yet at the same time we are 
most anxious to secure to the majority the pre- 
ponderance of power to which it is justly entitled. 



AT HOME AND AT COURT 289 

Let the voice of the weak be heard as well as the 
voice of the strong by your Government, give 
fair play to all, and make justice possible.' And 
he added this vital remark : ' The enfranchisement 
of women, already dictated by justice, would soon 
become a necessity.' 

His unfailing chivalry was always a radiant Fawcett's 
characteristic of his courteous nature, and he felt chtvliry. 
it his high privilege to serve women ; he had the 
faculty of encouraging them, and filling them with 
confidence in their own ability ; his voice, though 
not melodious, had a peculiar brightness that raised 
drooping spirits, and impressed itself upon the 
memory. Besides the encouragement which he 
gave by the employment of women in the Post 
Office, his efforts for compulsory education, now 
accepted as a matter of course, his labours to pro- 
tect young children at work in factory or field, as 
well as his fight for free playgrounds and commons, 
were all helpful to the mothers of the race. 

On the day after his death, a poor woman, who 
came to the employment ofiice to make inquiries 
on behalf of her daughter, who wished to enter the 
Civil Service, must have expressed the feelings of 
hundreds of struggling women, when she said : ' We 
do not know who will help us now that so good a 
friend has gone.' 

Believing that justice must infallibly become the Fair-play 
most expedient policy, he felt it was not only ^^^ '^" ' 
repugnant, but bad diplomacy, that any class 
should be excluded by force or prejudice from 

T 



290 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

having a voice in the Government, and he reahsed 
to the full that government could only be fair 
when it existed with the consent of the governed. 

The constant society of his wife and other 
brilliant women of her family and her friends, 
impressed him with the great benefit that it would 
be to the community to have the assistance of their 
votes, as expressing their fair and able minds. He 
said concerning women's voting : ' The Parlia- 
mentary suffrage should be applied to those women 
who fulfil the qualifications of property and resid- 
ence demanded from the elector. That is to say, 
if a widow or a spinster is in possession of a house, 
and pays rates and taxes, she should have the 
borough vote, and if she possesses freehold or lease- 
hold property, she should have a county vote, as 
if it were held by a man.' 
The Uses of We have dwelt on the great part that Fawcett's 
Adversity. bfinducss played in forming his character. It in- 
tensified his bravery and determination, broadened 
his sympathies, sharpened his observation, made 
his memory keener, quickened his intellect, and 
gave him a greater power to conquer himself and 
others. Affliction had given him strength as of steel 
well tempered, to withstand and pierce all muddled 
thought and murky sentiment, and so make the 
clear under-light of his soul a shining beacon to all 
who knew him. But there were, inevitably, quiet 
moments, when, all efforts unavailing, his blind- 
ness must have weighed heavily upon him. Seated 
by his fireside, feeling the glow which he might never 



AT HOME AND AT COURT 291 

see, he would listen to the crackling of the coal and 
the ticking of the clock as it marked a minute less 
of his darkness. Such hours had to be fought 
through single-handed, by his own courage and 
strength of will. 

No small part of his triumph over circumstance Hearth and 
was due to the great affections and friendships ^°™^- 
which were at the heart of his life. Chiefest and 
most constant of these were his flawless devotion 
to his wife and daughter, and the singularly beauti- 
ful sympathy and companionship which he found 
at home. It is not for the biographer to intrude 
into this holy of holies — enough to know that 
Fawcett had with his wife that perfect under- 
standing and fellowship, that entire sympathy and 
intellectual inspiration, which, when he was most 
sorely tried, gave him a sure haven of rest and 
happiness from which to start forth again, better 
armed and braver, to battle anew. 

When Mrs. Fawcett was absent, her husband 
would postpone a decision of great moment until 
he was able to get her opinion. She often acted 
as his secretary, and in all matters was his trusted 
counsellor. In later years, his daughter Philippa, 
whose great talent was a source of deep interest to 
him, completed with her brilliant intellect and 
happy wit this perfectly attuned trio. There is a 
poetic justice that Fawcett having fought so for 
the admission of women students at Cambridge, 
it was left for his daughter to achieve the highest 
mathematical honours bestowed on any woman in 



292 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



A blithe 
Spirit. 



A State 
Concert. 



Great Britain, when as a student at Newnham she 
won four hundred marks above the Senior Wrangler. 

He still greatly enjoyed society, and threw him- 
self so thoroughly into the spirit of sociability and 
gaiety, that he seemed to leave his critical Parlia- 
mentary self. Mrs. Fawcett, as a comment on his 
whole-souled capacity for finding all things and 
everybody lovely, jestingly composed this epitaph 
for him : ' Here lies the man who found every 
soup delicious and every woman charming.' He 
did, and what is more, he tried to make every one 
else find life lovely and to have as glorious a time 
as he did. 

He would never overlook any quiet mousy in- 
dividuals lost in the general gaiety, but would take 
pains to draw them out, to throw himself so 
thoroughly into their interests that he put them at 
their ease, and made them take part in the con- 
versation and shine unwontedly. 

A contemporary gives a gay glimpse of him 
chatting and joking merrily among the smart crowd 
at Lady Granville's. His tall figure towered over 
the little knot of friends invariably gathered round 
him. 

Fawcett duly attended the levees and occasional 
official dinners held by the Prince of Wales, and 
on one occasion, when in the neighbourhood of 
Balmoral, he dined with the Queen. With his wife 
he went to the concerts given by her at Buckingham 
Palace. These were very stately events. Arrayed 
in his court uniform, Fawcett would drive with his 



AT HOME AND AT COURT 293 

wife betimes to the palace ; as they approached, 
the music of the band in the courtyard was in full 
swing, and they liked to hear it as they waited in 
line until the preceding carriages had deposited 
their burdens. The guests moved through the 
glass doors to the entrance-hall, which echoed the 
rumbling of wheels and the closing of the carriage 
doors, the clanging of the spurs and swords of the 
men. They mounted the main staircase between 
the stationed Yeomen of the Guard, Fawcett's 
cheery voice and laughter resounding as he greeted 
friends above and below him. A moment's pause 
on the threshold of the great concert-room, and here 
the parquet floor gave back the tapping of little 
slippered feet and the heavy tread of the men, as 
the groups of guests flocked together or dispersed 
to find places before the music began. 

On both sides of the room were raised tiers of 
seats for the company. At one end was the low 
platform with chairs arranged for Royalty. At 
the opposite end, a balcony with the organ pro- 
vided places for the singers and musicians. Crystal 
chandeliers with hanging stalactites lighted the 
brilliant scene. Fawcett's fine ear caught the tiny 
tinkle of the crystals, as they answered to the 
draughts from the movement of the crowd, or 
trembled when the waves of music shook them on 
their little metal moorings. The good acoustics 
of the room, and the consequent clearness of all 
the sounds, brought the scene with unusual vivid- 
ness before the blind man. 



294 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



Enter Victoria 
Regina et 
Imperatrix. 



Voices of 
Youth and 
Art. 



A sudden expectant murmur rose from the crowd, 
a pause, a flutter of silks and a tapping of scabbards, 
the organ played * God save the Queen,' and the 
mighty little Empress entered and greeted her 
guests. Returning her courtesy, the brilliant 
throng bowed as a field of wheat swayed by the 
wind, until the Queen had seated herself in the 
centre of the dais, surrounded in due order by 
members of the Royal Family. 

Then the guests resumed their places and the 
music began. 

Here Fawcett, as much if not more than any 
other guests, enjoyed the fresh young voices of the 
chorus of young girls from the Royal School of 
Music, and choir-boys from the Chapel Royal. 
This youthfulness contrasted charmingly with the 
more formal and perfect singing of the great artists 
of whose skill Queen Victoria was so appreciative. 

When the programme was finished, the Queen 
rose and, preceded by gentlemen of the court 
walking backwards, went to the supper-room, 
through an aisle formed by her guests, stopping as 
she passed the balcony, to speak to the chief 
artists. The princesses who followed her often 
darted a smile or stole a fleeting word with one of 
the throng, and the more decorous ladies-in-waiting 
brought up the rear of the procession. The guests 
followed, with them Fawcett guided by his wife. 

As Royalty was well separated by an encircling 
wall of court gentlemen, the assault by the guests 
on the sandwiches, cakes and bonbons began 



AT HOME AND AT COURT 295 

without restraint. A horseshoe buffet surrounded 
the room. The throng stood about chatting 
together, waited upon by gorgeous footmen re- 
splendent in scarlet and white. The clinking of 
glass and china was drowned in the general con- 
versation, all the more lively after the long silent 
listening to the music. Then the guests drifted 
in friendly groups down to the great hall, where the 
names of departing guests called from footman to 
footman echoed among the pillars. 

A frequent and happy conversation this, as they 
sat on the long benches, muffled up and waiting for 
their carriages, and doubtless more than one of 
Fawcett's good stories was cut short by the call 
' The Postmaster - General's carriage stops the 
way.' 



Though he could find amusement m any form of a Big Friend 

ofalltl 
World. 



social intercourse, it was the opportunities of close ^^^'^^^ 



companionship that he most valued. He rarely 
lapsed into silence, and with his family, when there 
were no guests at table, he would talk with the same 
animation as if he had been at a brilliant dinner. 
Talk was an essential of life to him ; wherever he 
went, reserve vanished. 

If any unsuccessful schoolmate, who had no 
other claim on him, wrote for help, he was always 
sure to get it. In his interviews he was marvel- 
lously patient, would never let a person leave him 
in anger or displeasure ; few people left him without 
being his friends. If he said a sharp thing to any 



296 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

one, he confessed at once, and was not happy until 
he had made full amends ; any irritable action 
towards another on his part caused him much 
more suffering than he inflicted. 

His real democratic feeling and disregard of rank 
put him at his ease with all classes, his abounding 
geniality and accessibility often placed him in 
difficult predicaments from which it required a 
lively ingenuity successfully to extricate himself. 

Once while he was walking, a well-known bore 
buttonholed the Postmaster - General, and ex- 
plained at length how the Post Office might be re- 
generated. Fawcett listened patiently for five 
minutes ; then when it was clear that the man 
had no idea or facts to offer, but only words, 
Fawcett held out his hand, saying, ' Good day, 

Mr. J , I am much obliged to you for your 

kind wish to help me,' and walked on, leaving the 

bore, who felt himself just warming to his work, 

helplessly stranded. 

His Dog. His servants and his friends loved him ; he was 

wonderfully considerate to all dependants, and 

indeed to every one whom he met. Certainly he 

was over-attentive to his dog Oddo, who had 

emerged from a refuge of lost dogs to assume the 

high office of watch-dog in the garden of the 

London house. Fawcett was deeply interested in 

the higher education of this humble friend, and 

their common affection was very warm. 

Sudden His friendships were so sudden, at times so 

friendships, instantaueous, that their strength and duration 



AT HOME AND AT COURT 297 

was surprising. He had an incredible number of 
people whom he called in all sincerity his intimate 
friends, and, as one of them says, * all the over- 
growth of new friendship seemed rather to 
strengthen than to stifle the earlier ties.' As we 
have recorded, even the voice of an acquaintance 
once made, was to him unforgettable. When walk- 
ing in London with his sister, Fawcett met the 
Primate of New Zealand, who had been at 
Cambridge with him. They had not met for 
many years, and the Primate did not wish to 
trouble Fawcett by recalling a long-ago acquaint- 
anceship. But Miss Fawcett, recognising him, 
stopped, and as soon as the Primate spoke, Fawcett 
exclaimed with dehght, ' Why, it 's Nevill ! ' 

At Salisbury he invariably called on his father's rostmaster 
old farm servant, Rumbold. Rumbold was one ^"'^ ^''gs- 
day giving to Fawcett's mother the last news from 
his sties, and he added ' Mind you tell Master 
Harry when you write to him, for if there 's one 
thing he cares about, 'tis pigs.' Truly it was one 
thing, though it is generally suspected that the 
Postmaster had other interests. 

His increased income as Postmaster - General 
made no change in his simple mode of life, though 
he may have spent a little more on riding ; he had, 
however, the satisfaction of being able to buy his 
family more presents, and he took an intense 
delight in tactfully giving many little things ; he 
heard his sister say that she very much liked a 
lamp by which she had read to him in London. To 



298 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

her surprise and delight, on her return to Salisbury 
its twin appeared, found and sent to her by her 
brother. 

Nothing gave him greater pleasure than to have 
his parents and sister under his roof, and to give 
them a good time. One of the most touching things 
in his life was his intense affection for his father. 
When the father grew old and was forced to break- 
fast in bed, the big son, after saying good-bye to 
him in the morning, would often quickly run 
upstairs again just to kiss the old gentleman a 
second time. 

When his sister told him that his letters gave 
his parents the greatest pleasure of their lives, he 
never let a week elapse without sending oH two 
Presents and ncwsy documcuts to Salisbury. These letters 
Parents. abouud in affection and in many little proofs of his 

eagerness to make them happy. He sends a 
birthday present, a comfortable pair of ' Norwegian 
slippers,' or encloses letters containing bits of 
political news which he is at liberty to show them ; 
he tells them of his triumphs, even of compliments 
which he thinks that they would like to hear, and 
boasts of the admiration expressed for his father's 
remarkable vigour and youthfulness for his years ; 
he also compliments the admirable packing evinced 
by the excellent condition in which sundry gifts 
in various interesting hampers have arrived. 

He ran down to Salisbury whenever he could 
make time, and was there for the ovation given by 



AT HOME AND AT COURT 299 

the Liberals to his father on his ninety-first birth- 
day. The old gentleman had been a fighter in the 
Liberal ranks since the days of the great Reform 
Bill. 

Six months later, in spite of the urgent claims 
Cambridge lectures and Post Office work made 
upon him, he again went to speak at Salisbury. 
Parliament was in session too, an unusual thing in 
November, so that he was particularly hard worked. 
Still November 17th found him at Salisbury speak- 
ing to an enthusiastic audience, of which his father 
was one. After the meeting he seemed exhausted, 
but he returned to London on the 20th, lectured at 
Cambridge on the 22nd, and on the 23rd discharged 
his business at the House of Commons. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

A GRAVE ILLNESS 
Illness — Convalescence — Musical Discrimination. 

He was suffering from a cold, and complained of 
feeling ill. Mrs. Fawcett had been called away 
by the fatal illness of her cousin. When she re- 
turned to London, it was to hear that her husband's 
illness was pronounced to be diphtheria, and it was 
rendered more serious later by typhoid and other 
complications. 
Through the Until the end of December his condition was 
Back.'^^" grave. During the first stage of the illness he 
had frequently been delirious, and remembered little 
of what had happened. His mind was made up 
that he would not recover, and he insisted on hear- 
ing the bulletins. They were read to him with 
omissions. 

There was to be an important election at 
Liverpool, and he, remembering its date, asked 
about the prospect. It was his habit at Christmas 
to send to a list of country labourers whom he knew, 
or whose names had been given to him by his 
father, envelopes each containing a card on which 
was written ' Please give to bearer John Smith 
[so many] pounds of beef or mutton.' With the 

300 



A GRAVE ILLNESS 301 

card he sent a personal letter after this fashion : 
' Dear John, I enclose a ticket for Christmas beef. 
Hoping you and the children are well, I am,' etc. 
The entire list of these benefactions he kept clearly 
in his mind. Before he was out of his delirium, he 
asked his secretary to send out the Christmas 
letters and food tickets as usual. 

A little later, when he was just beginning to 
recover, a Cambridge crony was permitted to 
stand for a short time by his bedside. In the 
midst of his own weakness, Fawcett's thoughts 
flew to a Cambridge friend in trouble, and he 
charged his guest to do the utmost to give what- 
ever help was possible. 

The course of Fawcett's illness was watched 
with extraordinary anxiety. It was the dominant 
theme at working men's meetings and in third- 
class railway carriages. The Royal Family showed 
the same interest as the labourers who discussed 
the latest bulletin in the market-place of Salisbury. 
The Queen telegraphed for news, at times twice a 
day. Gradually the patient improved, and the 
danger was pronounced over. 

The convalescent was permitted to see his Convalescing 
friends, who in relays read to him the whole of ^^\y ^"^'-^ 
Vanity Fair. After three weeks' inaction, he was 
allowed to write to his parents, and amidst great 
rejoicing the cat and dog were permitted to resume 
their usual place in the family circle. In the early 
part of January he went to stay at his father-in- 
law's, on the Suffolk coast. 



302 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

His friend Mr. Sedley Taylor came to play to 
him. Fawcett would listen to him often for an 
hour at a time. Though he had little acquaintance 
with music, he showed for it a genuine appreciation 
and discrimination. There were two compositions 
which he particularly enjoyed, one by Mendelssohn 
and one by Bach, which Mr. Taylor often played 
in that sequence. One day, however, he inverted 
the order. After listening with interest, Fawcett 
remarked : ' I don't know how it is, Taylor, but 
somehow that Bach seems to have taken the taste 
out of the Mendelssohn.' 
Visits he At the end of this visit, Fawcett sent for all 

enjoyed. ^^^ scrvauts, SO that hc might personally give each 

a gratuity and shake of the hand, while thanking 
them individually for the kindness they had shown 
him. When no more were forthcoming, Fawcett 
said : * Where is that boy that blacks the shoes ? 
I should like to give him a tip too.' Whereupon 
the boy, who had been overlooked, was sent for 
and duly rewarded. 

Fawcett went on to pay some other visits in the 
west of England, which seemed to help him regain 
his strength. It was at this time that he first 
successfully amused himself by playing cards, 
though his former attempts had been so un- 
promising. His secretary devised the simple and 
ingenious method of marking the cards, which has 
been described, so that he could tell each one by 
touch. Thus he was able with great satisfaction 
to spend hours at cribbage, ecarte and loo. 



A GRAVE ILLNESS 303 

In February he went to stay with his parents at 
Salisbury, and there used his enforced leisure to 
prepare a new edition of his book on Political 
Economy. It was there that a stranger to the 
town, not knowing his way, questioned a tall 
scholarly man who approached briskly. He was 
given minute directions ; the streets and their 
windings were described in detail, and it was only 
after an amusing chat that the stranger discovered 
that his guide was the learned Professor Fawcett, 
and that therefore he must be blind ! It was 
extraordinary how his own attitude to his affliction 
caused others to forget it. Not infrequently his 
cottage friends would tidy up and put things in 
order ' in case Mr. Fawcett should drop in.' 

It was a great joy to his old parents in the with his 
Salisbury Close to have their busy, cheery 'boy ' Parents again. 
back again ; and Miss Fawcett, that brave under- 
standing friend in his affliction and throughout his 
life, was very happy in his companionship. One 
day they had been talking together as only those 
who have always understood each other can, 
lovingly they had gone over reminiscences of 
Salisbury and Cambridge, and had fought Parlia- 
mentary battles over again. Fawcett told his 
sister that above all his other work, he cherished 
his privilege of winning the forests and commons 
free for the people, theirs to the end of time. 

The two sauntered together into the near-by His Sister and 
cathedral where, as a tiny, half-scared boy, Harry ^^^ Cathedral. 
had gone clinging to his big sister's hand. Now the 



304 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

tall blind man held her arm, and his cane on the 
pavement was echoed by the high arches ; suddenly 
a great glory of music broke forth from the organ, 
magic uplifting notes shook the walls, and piercing 
with gladness the shadows of centuries, rehallowed 
the old sanctuary with melody. Fawcett stood 
leaning slightly against a column, his heroic head 
uplifted as if he were looking through the vaulting, 
his whole being suffused with an inward light, and 
his sensitive ear revelling in the lovely harmonies. 
The voices of men and women raised in chorus 
burst forth in a mighty Hallelujah ; the organ 
thrilled in glorious fulness, and again the voices 
repeated the refrain until it echoed from the wall 
like a song of triumph of good over evil, of light over 
darkness. A glad smile broke over the bhnd man's 
face as, pressing his dear companion's hand, he 
exclaimed : ' Oh, how beautiful that is ! ' 

Back to his He returned to his work in March, seemingly in 

fully restored health. 

His reception at the Post Office and the House of 
Commons showed how deep had been the love and 
anxiety called forth by his illness. He lived in 
the hearts of all classes — ^his bitterest antagonists, 
Conservatives as well as Socialists, loved and 
trusted him ; never was a man more of a democrat 
and less of a demagogue. 

Humble The old woman who for many years had the care 

of Fawcett's rooms at Cambridge had been much 
distressed by his illness, and had said to the Master 
of Trinity Hall, * Poor Mrs. Fawcett would miss 



Post 



friends. 



A GRAVE ILLNESS 305 

him so terribly.' ' Why should she miss him more 
than any woman would miss the husband she 
loved ? ' sympathetically asked the Master. ' Be- 
cause he is such a happy noisy man ; whenever he 
is in the house you know it, he is always shouting 
so,' was the tearful reply. 

A poor old shoemaker who had never spoken to 
Fawcett, but whose shop the Postmaster-General 
passed daily on his way to his work, gave voice to 
the public feeling when he said, ' If Professor had 
died, I should have missed him dreadfully. He 
always looked so pleased and cheery, it did one 
good.' 



u 



CHAPTER XXX 



AMONG THE BLIND 



What he 
meant to the 
Blind. 



A Leader of the Blind — Honours — His Last Speech. 

What his happy, successful life meant to the blind, 
and how he heartened them by his hearty person- 
ality, cannot be overestimated. 

* I went with him,' says Mr. Dryhurst, * to a tea- 
meeting at Bethnal Green. It was night, and the 
Assembly Hall, which was low, was crowded with 
over one thousand blind people and their guides. 
Fawcett, who spoke briefly, was greeted with 
fervent enthusiasm when he entered, and when, in 
the course of the speech he exclaimed in his 
thundering voice, ' Do not wall us up in institutions, 
but let us live as other men live,' the excitement of 
the audience and the animation of the blind faces, 
was something which I shall never forget.' 



a Leader out 
of Darkness. 



While at Cambridge preparing this book, the 
writer was sent for by a blind lady whom she did 
not know. She was old and ill in bed, but in 
happier times she had known Fawcett, who had 
often dined at her house. Recently she also had 
lost her sight, and she evidently felt that she had 
a debt to the great blind man who had been her 



AMONG THE BLIND 307 

friend when she could see. She wished the reUef 
of expressing her indebtedness, as in her weak voice 
she struggled to say : * I wanted to tell you that in 
my life no one has helped me as much as Mr. 
Fawcett ; his help is constant even now.' 

Fawcett had always lived so that he might be 
strong and attain. He was careful of his diet, 
exercise and clothing ; of this last to such a degree 
that his friends, as we know, loved to poke fun at 
him for his precautions against chills. Tradition 
tells of two suits of underclothing being super- 
imposed while in an express train London-bound 
on his way to the Houses of Parliament. 

We are given a glimpse of him at this time by 
a friend : * Coming towards me I saw a man lean- 
ing on the arm of his companion, and walking with 
a smiling upturned face, as though he were watch- 
ing the clouds of smoke from a small but ex- 
ceedingly fragrant cigar.' 

He seemed now quite his old self again in mind The Wear 
and body, though he would often return home 
exhausted from his work, and when Mrs. Fawcett 
read to him he would frequently fall fast asleep. 
On one occasion she was reading to him the 
biography of some distinguished man, and had 
come to a passage where the author was describing 
a moonlight scene, when Fawcett, waking from a 
nap, interrupted the peaceful picture with the 
exclamation, ' I always said he was a sagacious old 
fool.' 

It was natural that when his achievements had 



308 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

won him such wide popularity and distinction he 
should receive many of those tokens which most 
Honours. men cherish. Oxford gave him the honorary degree 
of Doctor of Civil Law ; Wiirzburg, on its tri- 
centenary celebration, made him Doctor of Political 
Economy ; he was elected a corresponding member 
of the section of political economy of the Institute 
of France ; the Royal Society elected him to a 
Fellowship, and in 1883, a year after his illness, the 
University of Glasgow gave him an LL.D. and 
elected him their Lord Rector, the other candidates 
being Lord Bute and Mr. Ruskin. 

He did not live to give his Rectorial address, but 
Mrs. Fawcett sent a copy of his Hackney speech 
to each of the students, saying as preface, ' This last 
speech appears to me so characteristic of him on 
whom the choice of the students fell, so free from 
party passion and prejudice, so scrupulously just to 
opponents, so fearless in saying what he knew would 
not be popular, so instinct with devotion to principle 
and love of justice, that I cannot believe it will be 
useless or unacceptable to young men just beginning 
the battle of life.' 

His friends had been over sanguine in their 
belief in Fawcett 's restored strength. He did not 
take a proper vacation in the summer of 1884, but 
devoted himself to settling questions which he found 
anxious and onerous about telephone rights. The 
work told on his weakened constitution. In 
September he went to Wales, ' made a vigorous 
little speech,' and visited two friends. He returned 



AMONG THE BLIND 309 

for his lectures at Cambridge, but he was forced to 
be much in London. Even so he snatched every 
occasion for fresh air and exercise that he could. 
He gloried in the great out-of-doors. 

One Sunday he went rowing with a friend on the 
Thames. It was a glorious day, and Fawcett was 
delighted with the church bells. They paused to Beiis. 
listen, and he exclaimed, ' How lovely the bells 
are ! ' and then added wickedly, * and how glad I 
am that I am not in church,' About him there 
always hovered a glint of the impish schoolboy 
playing ' hookey,' especially when he was in the 
open air, revelling in the warmth of the sunshine, 
listening to the lap and swish of the water, the 
rustle of the leaves, the wind in the grass, or the 
songs of the birds. He loved all these glad noises, 
and at such times his whole being gave out joy, his 
gay spirit had the freshness and the unhesitating 
truthfulness of early youth. He was so full of the 
light of that inner eye which nothing could darken, 
that he forgot his blindness in the fulness of his own 
bright soul. Heartily would he have assented to 
the sentiment : * It is a comely fashion to be glad — 
Joy is the grace we say to God.' It surprised and . 
startled those about him, whom he made so oblivious 
of his misfortune, when he would ask, ' Is the sun 
shining ? ' 

Hearing that the foliage at Clarendon was Golden 
singularly lovely that autumn, the tired, busy, blind Autumn?^ 
man snatched a moment to run down to see the 
woods. The glory of that autumn Hght on the 



310 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

trees at Salisbury, when he was last permitted to 
see them, was never to be forgotten. He refused 
to remember the catastrophe which had blinded 
him, and still delighted to recall the beauty thus 
lost, and to love all similar autumn glories. 

His Last His final speech was made at Hackney on 13th 

peec . October ; he lectured with weakened voice on the 

30th, went to London, and returned to Cambridge, 
where, though he found the weather damp and raw, 
he enjoyed a ride with some relatives. In the 
evening he compared his cold with that of a friend 
who was dining with them, and was forced to admit 
that the friend's cold was superior to his own. 

The next day, though he did Post Office work 
with his secretary, he kept his bed ; his lecture for 
Monday had to be put off. On Tuesday and 
Wednesday he grew worse, though he greatly 
enjoyed Mrs. Fawcett's reading of Dickens, laugh- 
ing heartily over it. It was now necessary to ask 
Lord Eversley, so often his able substitute, to act 
again as his deputy. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

LIGHT 

The Passing— The People grieve — Sorrow in Parliament 
— The Nation's Loss — Letters from Queen Victoria, the 
Prince of Wales (the late King Edward) and Gladstone 
— The Railroad Men's Tribute — The Significance of his 
Life — India's Loss — Fawcett's Message. 

On Thursday morning, 6th November 1884, the Between the 
two doctors who saw him found that his heart was ^^^^^' 
weak, and he asked his secretary to notify the 
papers of his illness. Another doctor came from 
London, and when the three went to Fawcett's 
room, they found that there was no hope of his 
recovery. Thoughtful as always of the com- 
fort of others, he asked in a failing voice if 
dinner had been arranged for the doctor who had 
just come. 

When his hands began to grow cold, he thought 
the weather had changed. Practical and exact to 
the last, he said : ' The best things to warm my 
hands with would be my fur gloves. They are in 
the pocket of my coat in the dressing-room.' He 
never spoke again. In the quiet room, the dull 
autumn afternoon darkened as his wife and 
daughter sat by the bedside. Very gently, his 
brave fight won, the tired blind man's un quench- 



312 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

able spirit left them in the twilight and passed to 
find the light. 

Remembered Rarely has a loss caused so much deep personal 

and Loved. . 

sorrow m every class. A dearly loved friend of 
many had gone, a noble life had been spent for 
others. There was mourning in many a little 
cottage when the head of the family read aloud 
that the good Postmaster-General had passed 
away. 

In the misty lamplit village squares, and in the 
market-place at Salisbury, the rural labourers 
gathered to lament his loss, and to recall his many 
good deeds and the countless little friendlinesses 
which he had personally shown to so many of 
them. 

' That such a man should have died at only 
fifty-one is one of those apparent wastes in Nature 
before which our philosophy stands impotent ; 
but that such a light should have existed at all 
makes philosophy superfluous in contemplating 
it.'i 

The morning after Fawcett's going. Lady 
Courtney told the news to her parlourmaid, who 
had known Fawcett. On entering the kitchen, to 
her surprise the cook burst out weeping and sat 
by the table rocking herself to and fro. * Why,' 
said Lady Courtney, * Maria, you didn't know 
Mr. Fawcett, did you ? ' ' Ah, yes, your ladyship, 
I knew him, the kind gentleman. It was when you 

1 This tribute is from an American appreciator of Fawcett. 



LIGHT 313 

and his lordship were out of town. I opened the 
door for him, and when he found you were not at 
home, he said, " I have been here to dine very often, 
and I want to know you." " Oh no, sir," says I, 
" I 'm only the cook," with which he puts out his 
hand and shakes mine like an old friend, as he says, 
" Well, I 'm very glad indeed to meet you." Then 
I offered him a glass of water, ma'am, which he 
drank so grateful.' Lady Courtney queried, * But 
Maria, why didn't you offer him tea, for the credit 
of the house ? ' * Oh, your ladyship, I didn't 
dare to, for fear he'd see the state of the house with 
your ladyship away.' 

When the news came to the House of Commons, 
sudden as such news always is, it fell to the Marquis 
of Hartington to announce it to the House. It is 
said that he all but broke down. 

Later in the evening there were more formal 
expressions of grief. Sir Stafford Northcote, on 
behalf of the Conservative Party, whom Fawcett 
had so consistently opposed, spoke of the loss the 
House had sustained, and said : * I do not think 
anybody can recall a single word that ever fell 
from him that gave unnecessary offence or pain to 
any one.' The Marquis of Hartington, on behalf of 
the Government, said Fawcett commanded the 
* respect, I think I may say the affection, of the 
whole House ' ; and Mr. Justin McCarthy, on behalf 
of the Irish Party, spoke with much feeling of ' the 
sudden and melancholy close of so promising and 
great a career.' The next evening Gladstone, 



Parliament. 



314 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

who had not been present the night before, said : 
* Mr. Fawcett's name is a name which is heard 
in all quarters of the House with feelings of the 
Sorrow in greatest respect. We have all been accustomed 
to regard with admiration his admirable integrity 
and independence of mind, his absolute devotion 
to the public service, the marvellous tenacity of 
his memory, combined with his remarkable clear- 
ness of mental vision ; and, I think, even above all 
these, if possible, the rare courage, the unfailing, 
the unmeasured courage, with which he confronted 
and mastered all the difficulties which would have 
daunted and repelled an ordinary man in con- 
nection with the loss of the precious gift of sight. 
From these and other causes he acquired a place 
in the hearts and minds such as is undoubtedly 
accorded to few ; and I believe that he had won 
a place equally high in the esteem and respect of 
the House of Commons. I wish in these few words 
to place on record, in the name of myself and my 
colleagues, our deep sense of the loss of a most 
distinguished public servant.' The last words were 
spoken by Lord John Manners, who, referring to 
the personal intercourse he had had with Fawcett, 
said, ' It was impossible to exceed in courtesy and 
fairness the eminent statesman whose loss we all 
deplore.' 

Writing of Fawcett shortly after his death, Mr. 
Beresford Hope used these words : ' He was a man 
who had conquered all personal enmity, all personal 
suspicion, and lived in the hearts of every man, on 



LIGHT 315 

every side of the House, without exception. Ask 
me why it was ? That is a difficult question to 
answer. The appreciation of character — the influ- 
ence that a man has — is generally indescribable. 
. . . He had gained a strange influence over the 
House, from the absolute certainty with which he 
inspired every man of the clear, transparent honesty 
and courage of his character.' 

Fawcett was always strongly opposed to taking The Reason 
away any legitimate pleasure, and the keen apprecia- °^ °^' 
tion of this fact by a child seems worth recording. 
Soon after the Postmaster's death, his small nephew, 
who had been promised that he should go to the 
Lord Mayor's Show, begged to be taken there ; 
the family naturally hesitated, and discussed the 
propriety of the boy's going to the festivity the 
day before his uncle's funeral. The natural 
question was, ' What would Fawcett have said 
under similar circumstances ? ' The small nephew 
piped up with * I know Uncle Harry would have 
said : " Go, my boy ! " ' This was so true that the 
boy went. 

Numerous letters were sent to the family, some Britain 
from those who, from lack of learning, were forced ™°"'^"^- 
to dictate their letters to the village schoolmaster. 
Others, who had rarely struggled with the intricate 
problems of pen and paper, strove painfully to put 
their sympathy into written words. Telegrams 
and resolutions of sympathy came from working- 
men's societies, labour unions, and all kinds of 



3i6 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



associations and societies, tokens of love and grief 
from a vaster circle of personal friends than almost 
any one ever had. 

We have the privilege of printing a facsimile 
of the sympathetic letter written with her own 
hand by Queen Victoria, and of the note of con- 
dolence from the Prince of Wales (the late King 
Edward) . 



Letters from 
Queen 
Victoria and 
the Prince of 
Wales (the 
late King 
Edward). 



'Balmoral Castle, 
'■ Novet>iber Wi, 1884. 

* Dear Mrs. Fawcett, — I am anxious to express 
to you myself the true and sincere sympathy I feel for 
you in your present terrible bereavement, as well as 
my sincere regret for the loss of your distinguished 
husband, who bore his great trial with such courage 
and patience, and who served his Queen and country 
ably and faithfully. 

' You, who were so devoted a wife to him, must, even 
in this hour of overwhelming grief, be gratified by the 
universal expression of respect and regret on this sad 
occasion. 

' That He Who alone can give consolation and peace 
in the hour of affliction may support you, is the earnest 
wish of yours sincerely, 

'(Signed) VICTORIA, R. AND I.' 



' Sandringham, 
' King's Lynn, November Wi, 1884. 

' Dear Mrs. Fawcett, — You are certain to receive 
many letters expressing sympathy with your present 



I^^il--*-* 





Farsimile of a letter from Oueen \'ictoria to Mr». Fawretl. 



LIGHT 317 

grief, and although I hardly like intruding so soon on 
your great sorrow, yet I am anxious to express how 
deeply both the Princess and myself sympathise with 
you in this severe hour of trial. Mr. Fawcett cannot 
fail to be deeply mourned and regretted by all who 
knew him — but he has left a name, which will ever be 
remembered among England's distinguished men. — 
Believe me, dear Mrs. Fawcett, truly yours, 

'(Signed) Albert Edward.' 



Mr. Gladstone wrote to Fa wcett's father. Miss What Glad- 
Fa wcett has kindly given us permission to reprint 
the letter. 

• 10 Downing Street, 
'Whitehall, November z^th, 1884. 

' Dear Sir, — Will you allow me to intrude upon 
you for a moment by offering to you in private my assur- 
ances of deep sympathy under the grievous loss you 
have sustained, and to repeat also the testimony which 
I have endeavoured to render in public to your dis- 
tinguished son. There has been no public man in our 
day whose remarkable qualities have been more fully 
recognised by his fellow-countrymen, and more deeply 
enshrined in their memories. There they will long 
remain now that they form the subject of recollection 
only and are no longer associated, as they were until 
the sad event, with sanguine and brilliant hopes. 

' He has left a record of some qualities which are 
given to few ; but of others, perhaps yet more remark- 
able, which all his fellow-countrymen may in their 
degree emulate and follow ; for integrity so high, and 



3i8 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

courage so far beyond the common range, aid more 
often than his great powers of intellect and memory to 
profitable imitation, and will, I trust, give to thousands 
a powerful incentive to honourable imitation and a 
means of real advancement, 

' Heartily wishing to you, dear Sir, both in retro- 
spect and in prospect every consolation, — I remain, 
faithfully yours, 

'W. E. Gladstone. 

'W. Fawcett, Esqr.' 

Mr. Favi^cett, senior, died at Salisbury at the ripe 
age of ninety-five, after a successful and much 
honoured life. 

It is interesting to read what the Prime Minister 
said of Fawcett, by whom he had been at times so 
vigorously and successfully opposed, and to whom 
the downfall of his Government was once largely 
due. 
The Old Folk The sorrow of the grief-stricken parents in 
a IS ury. g^jjgi^^jy fgj. ^j^g jQgg ^f their beloved son seemed 

too great a burden for their aged shoulders to bear. 
But slowly, as time went on, the father gathered 
comfort from the sympathy of great and humble. 
Reviewing lovingly bit by bit the brave course 
which his boy had run, he realised perhaps, as the 
crowning comfort, that in the inscrutable workings 
of fate, his unwittingly blinding his own child had 
not after all proved an irreparable calamity. 
Rather it had, by depriving the lad of the blessing 
of sight, miraculously sped him on valiantly to a 
great life gladly lived. 



SyvtJDf\iflcH/^iv|. 

KlfiG'S LYflfJ. 




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T 



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"^^n^^x-x j^y^^ 



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^'Z>-*-^'X ^-. 







>r 









^t_-^ ^ -«• Z-<!: 



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.^»Z1 ^-^ ^'j:^ jr ^ 



.^?-^ 






;he Prince of Wales (King Edward VII) to Mrs. FawcMt. 



LIGHT 319 

Among the many sympathetic letters sent to From 
Mrs. Fawcett, perhaps none express more truly the BHddayJrs, 
feelings of those to whom her husband had given his ^^'^* 
constant solicitude, and certainly none are more 
touching, than these two : — 

Pangbourne, Nove^nberWt, 1884. 

' Dear Madam, — I hope you will forgive us, but 
having followed the political life of the late Professor 
Fawcett, we felt when we saw his death in the papers 
on the 7th that we had lost a personal friend, and that 
a great man had gone from us. The loss to you must 
be beyond measure ; but we as part of the nation do 
give you who have been his helper our heartfelt sym- 
pathy in your great trouble, and we do hope you may 
find a little consolation in knowing that his work that 
he has done for the working classes has not been in 
vain. 

' We, as working men, do offer you and your child 
our deepest sympathy, and beg to be yours respect- 
fully, 

' Harry Cox, Carpenter. 
Charles Eddy, Carpenter. 
Richard Bowles, Carpenter. 
G. Lewendon, Bricklayer. 
George Brown, Bricklayer. 
William Cox, Carpenter. 
Charles Cox, Blacksmith. 
M. Clifford, Postmaster. 
F. Clifford, Clerk.' 



320 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

' 1 1 Elder Place, 
'Brighton, November nth, 1884. 

A Tribute ' DEAR MRS. Fawcett, — Excuse me in not writing 

from the Rail- y^^ sooner, on the sad death of your dear lamented 

road men of -' ' •' 

Brighton. husband. Several of his old friends at the Brighton 
Railway Works has wished me to ask you privately 
how you are situated in a pecuniary sense. We always 
thought that the Professor was a poor man, and only 
had what he earned by his talents ; his three years of 
office could not have brought in much money for you 
and the family to live in ease and comfort for the rest 
of your days. It is our opinion that you are richly 
entitled to a public pension. 

* Failing this, would you accept a public subscription, 
say a penny one, from the working classes of this 
country, for the many good and noble deeds your noble 
partner done for the working classes of this country. 
His advice was always sound, good and practical, and 
full of sympathy, a good private friend to all men. 

' I see you had a plentiful supply of flowers, but those 
flowers soon fade and are no support to the poor and 
fatherless ones. I am confident, if you could make up 
your mind to accept a penny testimonial the working 
classes would give cheerfully, not in the shape of 
charity, but for public and striking services rendered 
by one of the best men since Edmund Burke. We 
only wish he had lived twenty years longer. 

' Pray excuse my plain way of writing to you, as an 
honest workman, one of his supporters from first to 
last. His last letter to me a month back was full of 
sound and good advice concerning our Provident 
Society. — Believe me, your >sincere friend and well- 
wisher, John Short, Senior.' 



LIGHT 321 

Mrs. Fawcett, profoundly touched by this letter, 
was able to say that she could not properly accept 
the generous offer, as her husband had left her 
adequately provided for. Mr. Short, who had 
written the letter, replied to Mrs. Fawcett, * our 
men of the railway works say that you are 
entitled to all honour for refusing a pension 
or a public subscription from the working men ; 
also that your dear husband and our best friend 
has practised what he always preached to us, 
private thrift ! ' 

Fawcett was buried in the churchyard at Burial. 
Trumpington, near Cambridge, by the little old 
church, with its square tower, which he had so often 
passed on his joyful walks and rides. He was 
followed to his resting-place by representatives 
of all the classes and the peoples who had loved 
him. Those humble folk who were so dear to 
him mingled with statesmen of all parties and 
many countries, delegates from learned bodies and 
universities, his colleagues, and the undergraduates 
from his beloved Cambridge. 

The influence of such a career, the significance The signifi- 
of its eternal echo, grows in value each year. As pa^wceu's life 
life becomes more complicated, and competition 
keener, men in the general struggle naturally think 
themselves forced to safeguard their own interests, 
and forget what, by their very birthright as citizens, 
they owe to the community, to the making and 
purifying of the Government which should be the 

X 



322 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

protector of the weak, the instigator of progress, 
and the guardian of national honour. 

Fawcett's life awakens us to the possibilities of 
happiness and usefulness without the aid of money 
or position, and even despite one of the gravest 
impediments under which a man can labour. He 
completely forgot himself and his personal interests, 
and in so doing found happiness and success. His 
career was a forceful illustration of that ancient 
truth, * He that loses his life shall find it.' 

His heroic victory should help to give that faith 
and inspiration needed so much in our day in every 
field. Like that great friend of liberty with whom 
he so deeply sympathised and to whom we have 
compared him, Fawcett came from the humble 
people whom he fully appreciated, and he too might 
have said that ' God must have loved the plain 
people, or He would not have made so many of 
them.' He too struggled against gigantic diffi- 
culties, and became a leader of his countr^^men. 
From this position of vantage, which he cherished 
because it enabled him to do good effectively, he 
helped the poor and neglected, and those who had 
no voice to ask justice for themselves. Even the 
least of these touched his great heart and claimed 
his sympathy, and he wrought unsparingly, un- 
selfishly for their rights. Worn out with his cease- 
less task, he too was taken in his prime, at the 
height of his powers, beloved and reverenced by his 
own people, and the great and small of many 
lands. 




MEMORIAL IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY 



LIGHT 323 

A national memorial and many others were Gloria 

_ . ... Mundis. 

set up. Contributions were received from all 
parts of the Empire, in gifts ranging from the 
widow's mite to the munificent donations of 
Indian princes, in recognition of the help which 
Fawcett had given to their country. To the one 
fittingly placed in Westminster Abbey, the em- 
ployees of the Post Office contributed one-quarter 
of the cost. Besides the portrait, the memorial 
includes two figures symbolising Brotherhood, and 
others for Zeal, Justice, Fortitude, Sympathy and 
Industry. 

The remainder of the National Memorial Fund 
was devoted to the Fawcett Scholarship, available 
for blind students at the universities, and to the 
Fawcett playgrounds, gymnasium, skating rinks, 
boating equipment, and other athletic facilities at 
the Royal Normal College for the Blind. 

We have spoken of the feeling of India. A India's loss. 
great public meeting was held at Bombay ; 
extracts from some of the speeches are given below, 
and with them some cuttings from the Indian 
papers. 

' This great assembly is here to do honour to the 
memory of a high-minded English statesman, whose 
name has become a household word out here, to express 
that policy of strict justice and warm sympathy which 
alone can bind India to England.' 

' The best friend of India has gone — the Right 
Honble. Henry Fawcett. All people will regret the 



324 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

death of this statesman — especially those in India. 
He had so identified himself with the interests of India, 
and so fearlessly advocated the cause of the dumb 
millions of this poor country, that he had gained for 
himself the honorary title of the Member for India. 
It was certainly unfortunate that he had no place in 
the Cabinet. His colleagues, who knew him thoroughly, 
were probably afraid that in Indian matters he would 
prove too stiff for them. By far the best place for him 
would have been that of Secretary of State for India. In 
fact, ever since he was Postmaster-General India lost 
the services of its Member.' 

' Independently of his political services to India, Mr. 
Fawcett was well known among us as an author. His 
Manual of Political Ecottomy has become a text-book 
in all our colleges and universities, and his other writ- 
ings on social and economic questions are extensively 
read by the educated portion of our countrymen.' 

' There was no more touching spectacle than that of 

the blind Professor devoting himself as the champion 

of the country he had never seen, and the steadfast 

friend of the people with whom he had never come 

into personal contact, simply because that country 

needed a champion, and those people wanted a friend 

to represent their interests. Such a figure strikes me 

as even more chivalrous than the figures of the ideal 

knights who went about redressing human wrongs.' 

' To India his loss is truly irreparable.' 

The Statue ' ^" ^^^ market-place at Salisbury, near the house 

in his Birth- where Fawcett was born, and where he made his first 

^ ^*^^' economic investigation, they have placed a statue of 

him, so that the inhabitants of India and others coming 



LIGHT 325 

from distant parts to see Stonehenge and the great 
Cathedral may pause before the memorial, and, seeing 
Fawcett's name, will remember that he was the friend 
who fought for their rights.' 

As a friend wrote when deploring Fawcett's 
untimely death : * The necessity of the hour is one 
brave man, faithful to his convictions, strong 
enough to make himself heard above the angry 
cries of a mob, and determined that no amount of 
popular applause, no momentary party advantage, 
no miserable plea of expediency, and no false im- 
putation of cowardice shall move him one hair's- 
breadth from the path of rectitude.' Yes, Fawcett His Message. 
is needed to-day, and his example is needed now — 
the teaching of his generous bnotherhood, his intense 
industry, his fair thoroughness of investigation, 
and his conscientious deliberation. 

On his grave they have written, ' Speak to the 
people that they go forward.' In obedience to this 
summons this book has been written, and in hope 
that it will lead others to tell the story over and 
over again. It may too help others to follow in the 
footsteps of this country boy, who, blinded, fought 
valiantly against tremendous odds, and taught 
himself to ignore his misfortune and to make at 
last his spirit see so clearly that he found the truth 
and pointed it out to others. He became the 
champion of those who most needed a protector, 
and battled against oppression, ignorance, and 
neglect. He gave to the humblest the right to 



326 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

enjoy the commons and forests which he himself 
could not see. He strove for the friendless in 
India, and for the poor woman who had no voice 
in the making of the laws which bound her. He 
shouldered tasks beyond his strength, loving them. 
He attained the best because he believed the best. 

There is no parallel in history for this heroic and 
romantic life, in spite of the overhanging shadow, 
so full of usefulness, of joy and light. So keen was 
the sight of the eyes on his finger-tips, that he could 
detect the smallest leaf carried by the stream 
against his fishing-line. After a score of years he 
would recognise the laugh and the voice of a long 
absent friend. He worshipped in the cathedral 
of the immensity he could not see. His creed was 
simple, — love and service ; sacrifice, his interpreta- 
tion of God, and the secret of his life. 

He was called the * Messiah of the Blind,' and 
it was said that with his death the beacon for those 
who sit in darkness had been extinguished. Let 
us rather say that he kindled one for them for all 
time ; that saving for the blindness of the spirit 
there is no blindness ; through the light shed by 
his bright and noble life this blind man has proved 
it, and still teaches us to see. 



HENRY FAWCETT 

BORN 1833, DIED NOV. 6, 1884 

Virtus in arducis ! Valour against odds 

That must have daunted courage less complete. 

A spectacle to gladden men, and meet 

The calm approval of the gazing gods. 

So some large singer of the heroic days 

Might well have summed that life the fatal shears 

Too soon have severed. Many fruitful years, 

More conquests yet, still wider meed of praise, 

All hoped of him who had goodwill of all, — 

The brave, the justly balanced, calmly strong, 

Friend of all truth, and foe of every wrong, 

Who now, whilst lingering autumn's last leaves fall, 

Too soon ! too soon ! if the stern stroke of fate 

Ever too early falls, or falls too late. 

At least the passing of this stern, strong soul 

In fullest strength and clearness wakes lament. 

We could have better spared a hundred loud. 

Incontinent, blaring flatterers of the crowd 

Than him, whose self-respecting years were spent 

In silent thought and sense-directed toil, 

Ungagged by greed, unshackled and unswayed 

By sordid impulse of the sophist's trade. 

By lies unsnared and unseduced by spoil. 

No braver conquest o'er ill fortune's flout 

Our age has seen than his, who held straight on 

Though the great God-gift from his days was gone, 

'And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.' 

327 



328 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

Held on with genial stoutness, seeing more 

Than men with sight undarkened, but with mind 

Through prejudice and party bias blind. 

The ' foolish fires ' of faction through the flare 

Betraying beacons, in the battle's van. 

Vale I A valid and a valiant man ! 

Ampler horizons and serener air 

Await the fighter of so good a fight 

Than favour Party's low, mist-haunted hollow. 

Heart-deep regrets and honest plaudits follow 

Him who has passed from darkness into light. 

Punch. 



APPENDIX 



MEMORIALS 

The National Memorial in Westminster Abbey 
Memorial Scholarship for Blind Students 
Playgrounds, Skating Rink, Boats, and other 

Athletic Equipment for the Blind 
Memorial in Vauxhall Park 
Memorial near Charing Cross 
Memorial in the Parish Church, Alderburgh 
Memorial Window at Trumpington 
Memorial at Salisbury 



APPENDIX 

To make this record complete the following descrip- 
tions of the Fawcett Memorials is appended, together 
with the copy of a letter from Mrs. Fawcett's sister. 

There are three memorials in London, besides others 
elsewhere. 

The national memorial to Fawcett in Westminster 
Abbey bears the following inscription, written by Sir 
Leslie Stephen. 

HENRY FAWCETT 

BORN 26 AUGUST I 833. DIED 6 NOVEMBER 1 884 

After losing his sight by an accident, at the 
age of 24, he became Professor of Political 
Economy in the University of Cambridge, 
Member of four Parliaments, and from 1880 
to 1884, H.M. Postmaster-General. 

His inexorable fidelity to his convictions 
commanded the respect of statesmen. His 
chivalrous self-devotion to the cause of the 
poor and helpless won the affection of 
his countrymen and of his Indian fellow- 
subjects. His heroic acceptance of the 
calamity of blindness has left a memorable 
example of the power of a brave man to 

831 



332 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

transmute evil into good and wrest victory 
from misfortune. 
This memorial was erected by the subscribers to a 
national memorial. 



Memorial Scholarship for the Blind. Playgrounds, 
skating rink, boats and other athletic equipment at 
the Royal Normal College for the Blind. 

As has been said elsewhere, the national memorial 
in Westminster Abbey represented contributions re- 
ceived from all parts of the Empire. This sum was 
expended not only in erecting the memorial in West- 
minster Abbey, but also in providing the above- 
mentioned scholarship and athletic facilities for the 
"blind. 



The small Vauxhall Park, just behind Vauxhall 
Station, includes within its area the site of the house 
where Fawcett lived from shortly after his marriage 
till his death. In it stands a handsome memorial to 
Fawcett ■ given by Sir Henry Doulton. The high 
pedestal is decorated with eight panels in bas-relief 
Fawcett is represented seated. An angel stands be- 
hind his chair and is about to crown him with a wreath 
of laurel. The inscription is the same as that in 
Westminster Abbey. 



A drinking fountain was erected as a Women's 
Memorial to Fawcett in the Gardens on the Thames 
Embankment, east of Charing Cross. 



APPENDIX 333 

' The first person to drink of the waters of the foun- 
tain was a postman ; this gracefully recalled the regard 
in which Professor Fawcett was held by the humble 
servants of the state, whose duties he regulated, and 
whose welfare he had ever at heart during his tenure 
of the office of Postmaster-General.' — Extract from a 
contemporaneous paper. 



A memorial was placed by the inhabitants of Alder- 
burgh in the Parish Church there. The words with 
which the memorial is inscribed are as follow : 

Erected by the inhabitants of Alderburgh 

In memory of the Rt. Hon. Henry Fawcett, M.P., 

who was born August 26, 1833, and who 

died November 6, 1884. 

His brave and kindly nature will ever live in 

the hearts of all who knew and loved him. 

Be ye also strong, and of good courage. 



There is a memorial window in Trumpington 
Church ; below the figures of Truth, Fortitude and 
Charity is the inscription : 

In memory of 

Henry Fawcett 

Born August 26, 1833 

Died November 6, 1884 



334 A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 

A statue of Fawcett was erected to his memory in 
the market-place of Salisbury, near the house where 
he was born. 



Extract from a Letter from 
Mrs. Fawcett's Sister 

' A clergyman came to me one day in the street and 
asked if I was not Mrs. Fawcett's sister. I said " Yes," 
and then he told me his little story. 

* A friend of his had become blind and had lost hope 
and courage, and seemed unable to face the disaster ; 
then some one reminded him of Mr. Fawcett, and read 
his life to him, and the poor man took fresh heart, and 
met his misfortune bravely. The clergyman added, 
" I do not know Mrs. Fawcett or any of his family, and 
could not let slip this chance of telling them what Mr. 
Fawcett's example had done for my friend." ' 

May his example continue ceaselessly to help, and 
may this little book make his story more widely known, 
so that those who sit in darkness may see the light 
which his keen spirit saw — and seeing, choose the nobler 
part. 



INDEX 



Aberdeen, Fawcett at, 144, 167. 
Abolition of Slavery, 5, 76, 77, 

120, 157. 
Afghanistan, position of, 242-4. 
Agriculture, Fawcett on, 169. 
Aids to Thrift, Fawcett's, 276. 
Aldeburgh, the Garrett family of, 

130, 301 ; memorial to Fawcett 

in. 333- 
Alderbury, Fawcett at, 7, 36, 132. 
American Civil War, the, Fawcett's 

interest in, loi, 124, 145, 155, 

157, 162. 
Ancient Mariners, the, 85, 86, 262. 
Anderson, Dr. Garrett, 334 ; her 

interest in the Post Office, 257. 
Anecdotage, Fawcett's love of, 91, 

98, 99. 171- 
Angling, Fawcett's love of, 17, 60- 

63, 67, 268. 
Austen, Jane, novels of, 92. 
Australia, Fawcett on future of, 38. 
Avebury, Lord, accompanies Faw- 
cett on his honeymoon, 131, 132 ; 

his friendship with Fawcett, xiii, 

XV, 97. 147- 

Babylon, 15. 

Bach, Fawcett on, 302. 

Ballot Act, Fawcett on the, 175. 

Balmoral, Fawcett at, 292. 

Bateman, Bishop, founder of Trinity 

Hall, 86. 
Beaconsfield, Lord, Fawcett on, 

38, 168, 231, 242; leads the 

Conservative party, 161, 164, 

236, 239, 242. 
Beck, Dr., master of Trinity Hall, 

XV. 

Bengal, famine in, 236. 



Bethnal Green, Fawcett at, 243, 

306. 
Billiards, Fawcett plays, 27, 28. 
Blackheath, Fawcett at, 167. 
Blackwood, Sir Arthur, on Fawcett, 

279. 
Blind, Fawcett's alms to the, 71 ; 

literature for the, 68. 
Blindness, as a spur, 65 ; Fawcett 

on, 45, 66-69, 100, 149, 154, 

306. 
Blue ribbon, Fawcett on the, 264. 
Bombay, honour to Fawcett in, 

323- 

Bond, Dr. Henry, xv. 

Bowles, Richard, 319. 

Bradford, Fawcett at', 120, 145. 

Braille, never mastered by Fawcett, 
51- 

Bright, John, advises Fawcett, 146 ; 
advocates peace, 32 ; apostle of 
Free Trade, 8, 19 ; Fawcett on, 
38, 103, 160; on the Reform 
Bill, 162, 164; revered in 
America, 102. 

Brighton, Fawcett at, 56, 133 ; 
P^awcett contests, 153-9, 166, 
170, 227, 230, 232; Fawcett 
M.P. for, 126, 131, 139, 159, 
166, 168, 170, 174, 222, 225, 
227, 320. 

Brighton Election Reporter, the, 

'55- 

British Association, the, 168; at 
Aberdeen, 144, 167 ; at Man- 
chester, 95 ; at Oxford, 92. 

Brompton Cemetery, 123. 

Brougham, Lord, Fawcett on, 145 ; 
introduces Fawcett, 146. 

Brown, attendant, 78, 144, 192. 
3"5 



336 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



Brown, George, 319. 

Browning, E. B., 204. 

Bryce, James, Viscount, on Faw- 
cett, vii-xi, xv ; supported by 
Fawcett, 213. 

Buckingham Palace, Fawcett at, 
292-295. 

Bulgarian atrocities, the, 239-43. 

Burke, Edmund, 92, 320. 

Burt, Rt. Hon. Thomas, on Faw- 
cett, 232. 

Bute, Lord, 308. 

Byron, Lord, 48. 

Cabmen, Fawcett's friends among, 
198. 

Cabul, Fawcett on, 243. 

Cairnes, Professor, his friendship 
with Fawcett, 167, 169, 179. 

Calcutta, gratitude to Fawcett in, 
222. 

Cambridge, boat race, 212 ; Faw- 
cett as a Fellow in, 33, 59, 60, 
75-91, 104, 112; Fawcett as a 
professor in, 105- 1 15, 126, 138, 
153, 156, 227, 250, 267, 299, 
309, 321, 331 ; Fawcett as an 
undergraduate in, 25-33 ; Faw- 
cett contests, 106, 152, 153; 
Fawcett on society in, 89 ; posi- 
tion of women at, 136, 291 ; the 
Union, 32. 

Campbell, Lady, 69. 

Robert, xv. 

Sir Francis, xv ; his work for 

the blind, 66, 69, 70. 

Cardin, Mr. postal official, 276. 

Cards, Fawcett plays, 56, 302. 

Carlyle, Thomas, on political 
economy, 117. 

Cattle - plague, Fawcett on the, 
165. 

Chamberlain, Joseph, Fawcett votes 
against, 211. 

Charles 11., King, 194. 

Chartism, 20. 

Chesterfield, Lord, 87. 

Chetwynd, Mr. postal official, 
276. 

Children's Acts, Fawcett on the, 
165. 



Choate, Hon. J. H., xv. 

Church rates, abolition of, 148, 

152. 
Cicero, quoted, 18. 
Cima di Jazzi, Fawcett climbs, 57. 
Civil Pension List, 282. 
Clarendon, Fawcett at, 309. 
Clarke of Cambridge, 107. 
Clifford, M. & F., 319. 

Professor, Fawcett on, 281. 

Club for Workmen, Fawcett, 121. 
Cobden, Richard, apostle of Free 

Trade, 8, 19; Kawcett on, 159; 

visits Fawcett, 88. 
Common Lands, Fawcett's defence 

of, 185, 194-213. 289, 303. 
Commons Preservation Society, the, 

Fawcett as member of, ix, 194, 

196, 199, 200, 208, 211, 213, 

266. 
Congreve's rockets, 14. 
Cooper, Mary, marries William 

Fawcett, 5. 
Co-operation, Fawcett advocates, 

117-120, 231. 
Cornish mines, Fawcett's, 151. 
Corpus Christi Library, 244. 
Courtney, Lord, candidate for 

professorship, 105; his friendship 

with Fawcett, xv, 167, 192, 288. 
Courtney, Lady, xv, 312, 313. 
Cowper Temple, Mr., his motion re 

Epping Forest, 200. 
Cox, Harry, Charles and William, 

319- 
Crimean War, the, 32. 
Critchett, oculist, 35. 
Cross, Lord, as Home Secretary, 

208. 

Dale, Sir Alfred, xv. 

Darwin, Charles, defended by 
Fawcett, 94-97 ; his friendship 
with Fawcett, 97, 126, 168. 

Delhi, Empire proclaimed in, 236. 

Devonshire, Duke of, announces 
Fawcett's death, 313 ; as Liberal 
Leader, 235, 252 ; as Postmaster- 
General, 250. 

Dickens, Charles, his novels, 139, 
^10. 



INDEX 



337 



Disestablishment, Fawcett on, io6, 
.'53- . 

Disraeli. See Beaconsfield. 

Docwra, originates the penny post, 
271. 

Doulton, Sir Henry, his memorial 
to Fawcett, 332. 

Downe, Darwin at, 97. 

Dryhurst, F. J., Fawcett's secre- 
tary, XV, 265, 268, 306. 

Dublin, 167; Trinity College, 177, 
178. 

East India Company, 17. 

Eddy, Charles, 319. 

Edinburgh, Duke of, in India, 221. 

Edmonston, Mr. , opens Queenwood 
College, 9. 

Education, National, Fawcett advo- 
cates, 32, 119, 171, 174, 236, 
289. 

Edward VII., his interest in Fawcett, 
292, 317 ; in India, 235 ; knights 
Dr. Campbell, 66. 

Egyptian question, Fawcett on the, 
282, 283. 

Electioneering experiences, Faw- 
cett's, 146-159. 

Eliot, George, her interest in 
Fawcett, 118; her novels, 92. 

Ely Cathedral, 81. 

Enclosure Bills, the, 187-91, 201. 

Epping Forest, saved for the nation, 
187, 194-201. 

Evans, F. de Grasse, xv. 

Eversley, Lord, as Postmaster- 
General, 258, 310; his Bill re 
Common Lands, 208, 209. 

Evolution, Fawcett's defence of, 94- 

97- 
Exeter Hall, Fawcett at, 239. 
Exhibition of 185 1, the, 20. 

Factory Acts, Fawcett on the, 
165, 236, 289. 

Fawcett, Henry, his blindness, vii, 
xiv, 43-71, III, I49> iS4) 229, 
240, 251, 306, 326; his cheerful 
courage, vii, xi, 44, 273, 305, 
309, 325, 334 ; his love of riding, 
viii, 59, 60, 68, 229 ; his mental 



powers, ix, 29, 91, 173 ; his en- 
deavours to save Common Lands, 
ix, 185-214 ; his biography, xiii, 
XV ; his birth, 5 ; his early ques- 
tions on economy, 6, 10, 81 ; his 
schooldays, 6-21 ; his love of 
fishing, 7, 17, 60-63, 67, 104, 
268 : influenced by Cobden and 
Bright, 8, 19 ; his diary, 9 ; his 
oratory, 10, 31, 32, 143, 163 ; 
his boyish lectures and essays, 11- 
17 ; in London, 17, 19, 33, 137, 
I97> 235 332 ; his ambition to 
enter Parliament, 18, 19, 33, 36- 
38, 45, 46, 75, 82, III, 124, 143- 
59 ; as an undergraduate at 
Cambridge, 25-33 5 his friendship 
with Stephen, 25, 33, 78 ; his 
personal appearance, 25-27, 76, 
103, 129, 163, 197, 223 ; his 
skill in games, 27 ; his talent for 
friendship, 29, 31, 84, 85, 132 ; 
his love for political economy, 29, 
61, 81, loi ; his anxiety for his 
health, 30, 52, 268, 307 ; advo- 
cates national education, 32, 119, 
171, 174, 236, 289; his Fellow- 
ship, 33, 78, 82, 87 ; studies law, 
33 ; his eyesight fails, 34-39 ; his 
radicalism, 34, 83, 105, 106, 124, 
138, 148, 153, 161, 165, 166, 174- 
81 ; visits Paris, 35 ; his ideals, 
37, 284 ; his interest in social 
questions, 38, 117, 121-4, 165, 
236, 283 ; his interest in Indian 
finance, 38, 166, 177, 217-27, 
230, 233, 235-8, 242-6, 331 ; is 
accidentally blinded, 43 ; his love 
of walking, 49, 57, 58, 81, 125, 
238 ; his tailor, 52, 77 ; his 
memory, 55, 58, 124, 128, 144, 
191, 225, 233, 238, 297 ; his love 
of skating, 58, 68, 88, 171, 192, 
193, 210 ; as Postmaster General, 
70, 211, 244, 249-83, 289, 296, 
304, 308, 331 ; compared with 
Lincoln, 76, 77, 102, 103, 245, 
259, 260 ; his love of freedom, 
76, 157, 236 ; his love of rowing, 
85 ; evades bores, 89, 192, 296 ; 
his life in Cambridge, 82, 87, 90 ; 



338 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



hisconveisalional powers, 91, 98, 
129 : his sociability, 91, 98, 144; 
171, 292, 295; addresses the 
British Association, 92, 144, 167 ; 
defends Darwin, 94; his love of 
home life, 97-99, 204, 209-211, 
234, 291, 297-9, 3°3 5 his friend- 
ship with Mill, 99 ; his sympathy 
with the Federalists, 102, 145, 
155; portraits of, 103, 137; his 
Manual of Political Economy, 
.,,. 105, 218, 303, 324 ; as Professor 
of Political Economy, 106-117, 
126, 144, 153, 156, 186, 299, 309, 
321, 331 ; contests Cambridge, 
106, 152 ; his Free Trade and 
Protection, 115 ; asan M.P., 122, 
125, 138, 149, 160-7, 174, 176, 
188-192, 232, 265, 299, 304; 
elected to the Reform Club, 127 ; 
his marriatje, 130-2 ; his wife's 
companionship, 133, 209, 239, 
290-2, 307, 310; advocates 
Woman Suffrage, 133, 135-7, 165, 
289,290; contests Brighton, 139, 
153-9, 166, 170, 227, 230, 232; 
as M.P. for Brighton, 126, 131, 
139, 159, 166, 168, 170, 174, 222, 
225, 227, 320 ; his love of salt, 
140 ; his campaign in Southwark, 
146-50; his flutter on the Stock 
Exchange, 151 ; his intractability, 
176, 189; opposes the ministry, 
176-81 ; his hair cut, 203 ; his 
love of being read to, 204, 239, 
307 ; as M. P. for Hackney, 230- 
2, 243, 310 ; advocates peace, 
242 ; his handshaking proclivity, 
253, 254 ; his temperance, 264 ; 
his sense of fairness, 287 ; his 
chivalry, 289 ; his illness, 300 ; 
his honorary degrees, 308 ; his 
death, 311, 312 ; tributesto, 312- 

334. 
Fawcett, Mrs., mother of Henry, 5, 

44, 98, 107, 160. 
Mrs. Henry, advocates 

Woman Suffrage, 133, 135-7 ; 

her accident at Brighton, 133 ; 

her marriage, 130-3 ; her 

necklace from India, 245 ; her 



portrait, 137 ; on her husband, 
171 ; shares her husband's in- 
terests, 209, 239, 290-2, 307, 
310; sympathy shown to, 319- 
21. 

Fawcett, Philippa, daughter of 
Henry Fawcett, 210, 291, 311. 

Sarah Maria, sister of Henry 

Fawcett, 6, 35, 39, 44-51, io7. 
161, 204, 222, 297, 303. 

Thomas Cooper, 6. 

William, as Mayor of Salis- 
bury, 3-5 ; causes his son's blind- 
ness, 43-45 ; death of, 318 ; 
encourages his son, lo ; Glad- 
stone's letter to, 317 ; his Cornish 
mines, 152 ; his marriage, 5 '■> his 
memory of Waterloo, 3 ; his son's 
affection for, 298 ; sends his son 
to Cambridge, 21, 25, 33 ; sup- 
ports his son's elections, 153, 158, 
160, 232. 

junior, 6. 

scholarship, the, 323. 

Fearon, Mr. and Mrs., Fawcett 
lives with, 19, 20. 

Fishing, Fawcett's love of, 17, 60- 
63, 67, 268. 

Flunkeyism, Fawcett on, 139, 

Forster family, the, 107. 

Fortnightly Review, The, Fawcett's 
articles in, 176, 201. 

Franchise, Fawcett on the, 135, 

153, 158- . , 

Free Trade, Cobden and Bright s 

campaign for, 8, 19. 
Free Trade aiid Protection, Faw- 
cett's, 115. 
Freedom, Fawcett's love of, 133, 
135-7, 157- 

Gambling, Fawcett on, 28, 151. 
Garibaldi, in America, 20 ; in 

London, 157. 
Garrett, Millicent, her marriage, 

I30-3- 
Germany, evolution in, 96; sends 

an official to the Post Office, 269. 
Gladstone, William Ewart, as 

Liberal leader, 161, 164, 167, 

^IZ, 179-81, 235, 243, 259, 281 ; 



INDEX 



)39 



endorses Fawcett's policy in pre- 
serving Commons, 199 ; Fawcett 
on, 38, 231, 282; his eulogy of 
Fawcett, 314, 317; his Indian 
policy, 221, 236, 243, 244; his 
Irish policy, 282, 283 ; offers 
Fawcett Postmaster-Generalship, 
250-3; on Bulgaria, 239, 241, 
242 ; on Professor Clifford, 281 ; 
portrait of, 103. 

Glasgow University, elects Fawcett 
as Rector, 308. 

Gog Magog hills, the, 81. 

Granville, Lady, Fawcett visits, 
292. 

Guildford postal arrangements, 
263. 

Hackney, Fawcett M.P. for, 230- 

2, 243, 310. 
Hampstead Heath, 187. 
Harcourt, Sir William, as an orator, 

31- 

Harmony Hall, 9. 

Harnham, 99. 

Harnham Hill, Fawcett on, 43. 

Harris, Mrs., 6. 

Hartington, Lord. See Devon- 
shire. 

Helvellyn, Fawcett climbs, 57. 

Henry Fawcett Club for Workmen, 
the, 121. 

Herschel's philosophy, 47. 

Hill, Sir Roland, advocates parcel 
post, 271. 

Hodding, Mrs., Fawcett's letter to, 

36- . ^ 

Holland, evolution in, 96. 

Home Rule, Fawcett opposes, 
283. 

Hooker, Sir Joseph, Fawcett on, 
168. 

Hope, Beresford, on Fawcett, 314. 

Hopkins, Mr., his friendship with 
Fawcett, 31, 47-49. 

House of Commons, the, Fawcett's 
ambition to enter, 18, 19, 33, 36- 
38, 45, 46, 75, 82, III, 124, 
143-59 ; Fawcett as a member 
of, 122, 125, 138, 149, 160-7, 
174, 176, 188-92, 265, 299, 304; 



Ladies' gallery, 64 ; mourns 

Fawcett's loss, 313. 
Housing Bills, Fawcett on, 236. 
Howe, H.M.S., 9. 
Hughes, Tom., introduces Fawcett 

to the House, 160. 
Hunter, Sir Robert, as Solicitor to 

the Post Office, 266; on Fawcett, 

XV, 191, 197, 262, 266. 
Huxley, Professor, as a Radical, 

124 ; visits Fawcett, 89. 

Ibbesley, Fawcett at, 205. 
Iddesleigh, Lord, on Fawcett, 

313- 

Immigration, Fawcett on, 145. 

Income Tax, Fawcett on, 231. 

India, famine in, 236 ; Fawcett's 
interest in, 38, 166, 177, 217- 
27, 230, 233, 235-8, 242-6 
331 ; gratitude to P'awcett in, 

230. 245. 323-6- 
Indian Council, Fawcett as member 

of, 252. 
Institute of France, Fawcett as 

member of, 308. 
Insurance, Fawcett on, 276. 
Irish question, the, Fawcett on, 

124, 167, 175, 282, 283. 
Irish University Bill, the, 177-81. 
Italian Unity, Fawcett's interest in, 

157- 

James, Henry, on Trinity Hall 

Garden, 79. 
Jesus College, Cambridge, 91. 
Johnson, Dr., 90. 
Jones, Richard, Whewell on, 92. 

Keller, Helen, on her blindness, 

King's College, Fawcett at, 18-21. 
Knightsbridge, 123. 
Kossuth, in London, 20. 

Lambeth, Fawcett's garden in, 

137- 
Lancashire love of freedom, 102. 

Land question, Fawcett on the, 

120, 169, 171. 
Lardner's E^icyclopadia, 47. 



340 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



Lark, Mrs., i6o. 

Layard, Sir A. H., contests South- 

wark, 148-50. 
Leeds, colliery near, 118. 
Lee-Warner, Sir William, on Faw- 

cett, XV, 245, 256. 
Lefevre, Shaw. See Lord Eversley. 
Lewis, Harvey, Fawcett on, 168. 
Lewendon, G., 319. 
Liberal Party, the, Fawcett on, 176, 

201, 231. 
Lincoln, Abraham, assassination 

of, 130; compared with Fawcett, 

76, 77, 102, 103, 245, 259, 260 ; 

Fawcett's admiration of, 76, 102. 
Lincoln's Inn, Fawcett studies at, 

33. 75- 
Liverpool, election at, 300 ; postal 

work in, 258. 
London, Fawcett in, 17, 19-21, 33, 

137, 197, 235, 332 ; Fawcett on 

society in, 89, 90. 
Longford, Fawcett family at, 7, 8, 

39. 48. 

Longton, manor of, 195, 196. 

Louise, Princess, dowry of, 139. 

Lytton, Bulwer, on the Westmin- 
ster Debating Society, 34. 

Macaulay, Lord, as an orator, 31. 

M'Carthy, Justin, on Fawcett, 313. 

Macmillan, publisher, his friend- 
ship with Fawcett, 104. 

Macmillaft's Magazine, Fawcett's 
contributions to, 94, 104, 151. 

Mahomet, 17. 

Maine, Sir Henry, master of Trinity 
Hall, 228. 

Malta, 242, 

Manchester, Fawcett at, 95 ; postal 
conditions in, 258. 

Manners, Lord John, as Postmaster- 
General, 253, 271; on Fawcett, 

314- 

Mansergh, J., 10. 

Manual of Political Economy, Faw- 
cett's, 105, 218, 303, 324. 

Married Women's Property Act, 258. 

Maxwell, Clerk, 55. 

Mayor, candidate for professorship, 
105, 107. 



Memory, cultivated by the blind, 
55, 144. 191. 225, 233, 297. 

Mendelssohn, Fawcett on, 302. 

Meredith, George, his Vernon 
Whitford, 78. 

Mill, John Stuart, advocates Woman 
Suffrage, 135, 165; Fawcett on, 
loi ; Fawcett studies h.{s Political 
Economy, 29, 61, loi, 105, 114; 
Fawcett's correspondence with, 
99, 100 : his friendship with 
Fawcett, 99, 116, 126, 145; his 
interest in India, 217, 218 ; his 
Liberty, 178 ; his political 
opinions, 158, 161, 163, 168- 
70 ; his wife, loo ; invited to 
Cambridge, 88 ; M.P. for West- 
minster, 122, 124, 160, 161, 168, 
169 ; member of the Radical 
Club, 138. 

Milton, John, 16, 92. 
Mining in Cornwall, Fawcett's in- 
terest in, 151. 
Monarchism, Fawcett on, 106. 
Moore, M.P. for Brighton, 156, 

159- 

Morgan, master of Jesus College, 
Cambridge, 91, 213. 

Morley, John, Viscount, onCobden, 
8 ; takes Fawcett a walk, xv, 
212. 

Morning Star, The, supports Faw- 
cett, 146, 150, 155. 

Moscow, evolution in, 96. 

Music, Fawcett's love of, 302, 304. 



Naoroji, Nadabhai, evidence of, 
221. 

Napoleon i., 3, 15. 

III., 85. 

National Education, Fawcett advo- 
cates, 32, 119, 171, 174, 236, 
289. 

Portrait Gallery, the, 137. 

Nationalisation of land, Fawcett 
on, 120, 169. 

Nevill, Primate of New Zealand, 
297. 

New Forest, Fawcett's defence of 
the, 205-8. 



INDEX 



341 



Newmarket, Fawcett at, 26, 59, 

125, 238. 
Newnham, Miss Fawcett at, 292. 
Newton, Sir Isaac, 16, 31. 
Nicholas, Emperor, 32. 
Nineteenth Century^ the, Fawcett's 

article in, 237. 
Nineveh, 15. 
Northcote, Sir Stafford, on Fawcett, 

313- 

Oddo, Fawcett's dog, 296. 
Odger, George, Fawcett's friendship 

with, 121-3. 
Owen, Robert, builds Harmony 

Hall, 9. 
Oxford and Cambridge boat race, 

212. 
confers D.C.L. on Fawcett, 

308; Fawcett at, 68, 92. 

Palliasse, Madame, 36. 

Palmerston, Lord, as Premier, 19, 
161 ; Fawcett on, 38; his foreign 
policy, loi. 

Pangbourne, sympathy from, 319. 

Paris, Fawcett in, 35, 36. 

Parker, Archbishop, 87, 244. 

Parliamentary Reform, Fawcett on, 
157, 162, 166, 176, 23s, 288. 

Peel, Sir Robert, 4. 

Permissive Bill, the, 231. 

Peterhouse College, Cambridge, 
Fawcett at, 25, 33. 

Phonography, Fawcett on, 17. 

Political Economy, in America, 
loi ; Fawcett begins to study, 
29, 30, 48, 81, loi ; Fawcett as 
professor of, 105-17, 126, 144, 
153, 156, 186, 299, 309, 321, 

331- 

Club, the London, 105. 

Political Economy for Beginners, 

Mrs. Fawcett's, 133. 
Poor Laws, Fawcett on the, 176. 
— — rates, the, 148. 
Pope, Alexander, 32. 
Postmaster-General, Fawcett as, 

70, 211, 244, 249, 283, 289, 296, 

304, 308, 331. 
Post Office, annuities, 277 ; employ- 



ment of women in, 256-8, 289 ; 
Fawcett's first speech on, 162 ; 
Fawcett's wish to employ the 
blind in, 70 ; memorial to Faw- 
cett, 323 ; money orders, 275 ; 
parcel post, 271-3 ; savings 
bank, the, 257, 271, 275, 282; 
telegraph service, 271, 277, 278, 
282 ; telephone service, 278, 308. 

Privy Seal, Fawcett on the, 19S. 

Pryne, Professor, Fawcett succeeds, 
105. 

Punch on Henry Fawcett, 233, 234, 
241, 242, 279-81, 328. 

Quarterly Review, quoted, 14. 
Queenwood College, Fawcett at, 9- 

18,31- 
Quoits, Fawcett plays, 27. 

Radical Club, the, Fawcett 
founds, 138. 

party, Fawcett as a member 

of the, 34, 83, 105, 124, 138, 
153, 161, 165, 166, 174-81. 

Railways, Royal Commission on, 
271. 

Reed, J., evidence of, 191. 

Reform Bills, Liberal and Conser- 
vative, 162-4 j rejoicings in 
1832, 3, 4. 

Club, Fawcett as member of 

the, 127. 

Religious restrictions, Fawcett advo- 
cates removal of, 148, 174, 177-9. 

Republican Club, Fawcett founds 
the, 138, 139, 281. 

Ricardo, Fawcett on, 114. 

Riding, Fawcett's love of, viii, 59, 
60, 68, 229. 

Ritchie, Lady, on Thackeray and 
Fawcett, xv, 128. 

Roller-skating, Fawcett tries, 171. 

Rottingdean, Fawcett at, 57. 

Rowing, Fawcett's love of, 6%, 85, 
262, 309. 

Royal Normal College fo the 
Blind, Campbell's work at the, 66 ; 
Fawcett memorials in, 323, 332. 

Royal Society, Fawcett a Fellow of 
the, 308. 



342 



A BEACON FOR THE BLIND 



Rumbold, farm-servant, 297. 
Ruskin, John, 308 ; challenges 

Fawcett, 208. 
Russell, Lord John, his Reform 

Bill, 162-4 ; resignation of, 

161. 
Russian action in Turkey, 241-3. 

Salisbury, dean of, 21 ; Fawcett 
in, 52, 59, 61, 77, 81, 97, 204, 
251, 270, 297-9, 303. 310; 
Fawcett family at, 3-8, 39, 43, 
98, 29S ; marquis of, on India, 
233 ; rejoices over Reform Bill, 
4 ; statue of Fawcett in, 324, 

334- 
Salt, Fawcett's love of, 140. 
Saturday Review, on Fawcett, 231. 
Schurz, Carl, in America, 20. 
Scott, Mr. Justice, on India, 223. 
Scovell, contests Southwark, 148- 

50. 
Serpentine, skating on the, 58. 
Seward, Stephen meets, 102. 
Seymour, Danby, 160. 
Shakespeare, quoted, 17, 46. 
Short, John, 320. 
Sidgwick, professor, on Mill, loi. 
Skating, Fawcett's love of, 58, 68, 

88, 171, 192, 193, 210. 
Slavery, abolition of, 5, 76, 77, 

120, 157. 
Smith, Hamblin, his arithmetic, 

104 ; Miss M'Cleod, xv. 
Socialism, Fawcett on state, 120. 
Social Science Association at Brad- 
ford, 145. 
Society of Arts, advocates parcel 

post, 271. 
Somerset House, Fawcett at, 19. 
Sopp, Mr., schoolmaster, 79. 
Southey, Robert, Fawcett quotes, 

50. 
Southwark, Fawcett contests, 146- 

50. 
Spectator, The, 239 ; on Hooker, 

168. 
Spencer, Herbert, as a Radical, 

124. 
Stanley, Lord, interviewed by 

Fawcett, 145. 



Staten Island, Garibaldi in, 20. 
Steam, Fawcett on the powers of, 

14-17- 

Stephen, Sir Leslie, as Vernon 
Whitford, 78 ; at Cambridge with 
Fawcett, 25-27, 30, 33, 78, 90, 
106, 116; composes inscription 
on Fawcett memorial, 331 ; his 
biography of Fawcett, xiii, xv, 
25? 54, i54j 213 ; on Fawcett at 
Southwark, 149 ; on Fawcett's 
parliamentary career, 282 ; on 
Trinity Hall festivities, 86 ; por- 
trait of, 103 ; supports Fawcett 
at Brighton, 154-5 ; visits 
America, 102. 

Stevenson, George, 5. 

Stewart, Professor, on Fawcett, 197. 

St. Martin's Hall, Fawcett at, 124. 

Stock Exchange, Fawcett's flutter 
on the, 151, 152 ; telegrams, 
277. 

Stonehhenge, 10, 325. 

Stuart, Rt. Hon. James, xv. 

Suffolk Mercury, quoted, 13 1. 

Suffrage for Women, advocated 
by Fawcett, 133, 135-7, 165, 289, 
290. 

Sultan of Turkey, visits England, 
218. 

Taylor, Beatrice, xv. 

Henry, 264 n. 

Sedley, xv, 264 n., 302. 

Tea-Room Party, the, 164. 
Telegraphic communication with 

India, 218. 
Thackeray, W. M., his friendship 

with Fawcett, 126-128; novels 

of, 92, 301. 
Thames Embankment Gardens, 207, 

332. 
Times, The, on Fawcett, 231. 
Tizard, fisherman, 205. 
Torquay, Darwin at, 96. 
Trade Unionism, Fawcett's interest 

in, 120. 
Trevelyan, Sir George, his Life oj 

Fox, 2.19. 
Trinity College, Cambridge, 83 ; 

master of, 228. 



INDEX 



343 



Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Fawcett 
at, vii, 33, 76-91, 102-7, 128, 
228, 267, 304 ; its Christmas 
festivities, 86-88, 128. 

Trumpington, Fawcett's grave at, 
and memorial at, 321, 333. 

Turkey, Sultan of, visits England, 
218. 

Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria, 239- 

43- 
Tyndall, Professor, at Queenwood 
College, II, 76; Lord Avebury 
on, 147. 

University Reform, Fawcett ad- 
vocates, 32, 82, 153, 166, 174, 
175, 178. 

Ural Mountains, the, 81. 

Victoria, Queen, accession of, 5, 
6 ; hands over Epping Forest to 
to the nation, 201 ; her interest 
in Fawcett, 251, 254, 292, 301, 
316; opens the Great Exhibi- 
tion, 20 ; proclaimed empress, 
236. 

Volunteer movement, the, 148. 

Walking, Fawcett's love of, 50, 
58, 125, 238. 



Walton, Sir Isaac, Fawcett on, 17. 
Waterloo, battle of, 3. 
Watt, James, 16. 
Wedderburn, Sir David, 125. 
Wellington, Arthur, first duke of, 4. 
Westminster, J. S. Mill stands for, 

122. 
Abbey, memorial to Fawcett 

in, 323, 331. 332. 

Debating Society, Fawcett at 

the, 34. 

Whewell, Dr., Fawcett defeats, 92, 
93 ; his admonition on fallibility, 
83 ; Inductive Philosophy, 47. 

White, M.P. for Brighton, 158-60. 

Wilberforce, bishop, attacks Dar- 
win, 94. 

Willingdale, puplic spirit of, 195. 

Wilson, Edward, on Mill, 30. 

Wimbledon Common, 212, 262. 

Wisley Common, case of, 188, 208. 

Withypool Common, 191. 

Woman Suffrage, Fawcett advo- 
cates, 133, 135-7, 165, 289, 
290. 

Woolwich, 14. 

Wright, fisherman, his friendship 
with Fawcett, 70, 71, 117. 

WUrzburg, confers honours on 
Fawcett, 308. 



Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty 
at the Edinburgh University Press 



m 25 1915 



